Biblical Natural Law: A Theocentric and Teleological Approach by Matthew Levering (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 164 THOMAS G. GUARINO Seton Hall University South Orange, New Jersey Biblical Natural Law: A Theocentric and Teleological Approach. By MATTHEW LEVERING. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Pp. 288. $97.00 (cloth). ISBN: 978-0-19-953529-3. Tracey Rowland, in her book Raztinger’s Faith, calls Matthew Levering a leading Anglophone “Ressourcement Thomist” or “Biblical Thomist.” Rowland characterizes this form of Thomism as an attempt to let the study of Scripture “set the tone” for the inquiry as opposed to a strict adherence to Thomas’s ordering, as well as an “insistent critique” of the nominalist shifts of Scotus and Ockham. This is a fitting description of Levering’s approach in Biblical Natural Law. Levering shows his biblical Thomism by rooting his reflection on natural law in the scriptural witness, and he shows his biblical Thomism by appropriating Aquinas to explicate the biblical witness in theocentric and teleological terms. (Scotus and nominalism will appear below.) Overall, Levering’s book marks a unique and refreshing turn in contemporary natural law discourse. Levering combines an articulation of natural law that is theocentric, thereby placing natural law within a theological (rather than an anthropocentric) framework; teleological, thereby claiming that natural law already orients us, before our selfconstructing choices are involved, in a predetermined direction toward a good common to all; and biblical, thereby crossing the line between the disciplines of theology and biblical exegesis to claim that this understanding of natural law best accounts for Scripture’s witness to the topic. But before we can applaud, Levering must overcome a few obstacles. For starters, the notion of a “biblical” natural law is problematic, as Levering is well aware. The Bible doesn’t say much about “natural law,” and what little it might say has been interpreted as unable to sustain a robust natural law ethic. Levering confronts this problem in chapter 1 by engaging two studies in Old Testament ethics (John Barton and David Novak) and two studies in New Testament ethics (Richard Hays and Allen Verhey). Those familiar with Levering’s work will anticipate that his approach to Scripture will include a strong affirmation of the role of metaphysical speculation in biblical interpretation—a theme most thoroughly developed in his Scripture and Metaphysics, where he argues that “Theological and metaphysical ‘reading into’ biblical texts may largely be expected to illuminate the realities described in Scripture rather than obscure them.” Thus, Levering criticizes Hays’s focus on “biblical narrative particularity” in Christian ethics, noting, “Hays would appear BOOK REVIEWS 165 to reject the speculative investigation into the moral life that integrates biblical texts and metaphysical anthropology,” opting instead for metaphorical and imaginative reflection based on the belief that the biblical stories are themselves largely metaphorical and imaginative. Levering observes, however, “The ‘metaphorical paradigms’ offered by biblical stories read within the Christian community (cf. Hauerwas, Frei, and Lindbeck) are insufficient outside metaphysical questioning that arises from serious attention to the Old Testament theologies oflaw.”When subjected to sophisticated metaphysicalquestioning,the Decalogue, although it is externally revealed at Sinai, is also understood as being internally embodied as a constitutive aspect of human nature in the form of the principles of natural law. For Levering, there is no need to create a sharp disjunction between natural law and divine revelation, since “what is ‘natural’ is not, in the disordered condition of human sinfulness, what comes naturally or mere common sense.” Attentiveness to Genesis 1-2—a thoroughly theocentric account of God’s creative providence—also reveals that human beings have certain natural inclinations for goods that are constitutive for human flourishing. These natural human inclinations disclose the teleological character of natural law within a theocentric account of God’s creative providence. Levering also draws on the Book of Wisdom to show that law is not first and foremost an aspect of human nature; rather, it is a reflection of the wisdom of God. It is, in other words, thoroughly theocentric in origin and end. Lastly, the gift of the Holy Spirit in the form of the “New Law” does not negate but rather fulfills the law’s precepts. But even if the Bible reveals such things, we as modern thinkers...