God and Morality

Christopher L. Holland
christopher.holland@slu.edu

Saint Louis University

April 29, 2025

The Euthyphro Dilemma

Consider this: Is something holy loved by the gods because it is holy, or is it holy because the gods love it?”

— Plato, Euthyphro 10a

We can update Plato’s question to address the relationship between God and Morality:

  • Does God love goodness because it is good, or is it good because God loves it?
  • Does God command something because it is right, or is it right because God commands it?

Unqualified Divine Command Theory (Voluntarism)

  • What makes something good or bad?
    God’s will / God says so.
  • What makes something right or wrong?
     God’s will / God says so.

Natural Law Theory

First: What is a law?

According to Aquinas a law is:

  • An ordinance of reason
  • for the common good
  • made by him who has care of the community
  • and promulgated.

Natural Law Theory

  • What makes something good or bad?
    • God is goodness itself and good things resemble/share in God’s goodness.
    • Conversely, those things that run contrary to the goodness of God are bad.
    • The first principle of practical reason is: the good is that which all things seek after.
    • Greatest good = shared union with God
  • What makes something right or wrong?
    • God has ordered the world in such a manner that certain actions promote goodness and others oppose it (cause badness).
    • This order and the principles of practical reason lead to natural “laws”.
    • The most basic natural law is: do good and avoid evil.

Modified Divine Command Theory

  • What makes something good or bad?
    • Option 1: Same as Natural Law
    • Option 2: Promotion of Well-being
    • Again: Greatest good = shared union with God
  • What makes something right or wrong?
    • God’s will / God says so.
    • However, God only wills what is consistent with his nature—which is good/loving.
    • Thus right and wrong will ultimately promote the goodness/well-being of creatures.

Sources

Adams, Robert M. 1999. Finite and Infinite Goods: A Framework for Ethics. Kindle. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Aquinas. (1920) 2017. The Summa Theologiæ of St. Thomas Aquinas. Edited by Kevin Knight. Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province. 2nd ed. New Advent. https://www.newadvent.org/summa/.
Kinghorn, Kevin. 2016. A Framework for the Good. Notre Dame, ID: University of Notre Dame Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvpj7d2f.
———. 2018. “A Humean Account of What Wrongness Amounts To.” In Religious Ethics and Constructivism: A Metaethical Inquiry, edited by Kevin Jung, 40–62. Routledge Studies in the Philosophy of Religion 19. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Rachels, James. 2017. “The Divine Command Theory.” In Philosophy: The Quest for Truth, edited by Louis P. Pojman and Lewis Vaughn, 10th ed., 556–58. New York: Oxford University Press.
Stump, Eleonore. 2022. “Aquinas’s Theory of Goodness.” The Monist 105 (3): 321–36. https://doi.org/10.1093/monist/onac003.