How Does Law Relate to Creation | Oliver O'Donovan
Channel: Henry Center
Date: 2023-02-01

Lecture Title - Creation, Law, and History

It is usual to expound the idea of creation by referring to "law" as the principle of regularity and predictability that inheres in the order of the world. But the term "law" is often supposed to be equivocal, meaning one thing as applied to creation and something else as a norm of free human conduct. In this lecture, O'Donovan argues that in its various theological uses the concept of law is consistent, and always implies the notion of creation. Through it the task of ethics is located in between the givenness of created order and the openness of action, which thereby acquires its significance as "history."

Oliver O’Donovan (PhD University of Oxford) is British Anglican Priest and Academic, known for his work in the field of Christian ethics. He was Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford from 1982 to 2006, and Professor of Christian Ethics and Practical Theology at the University of Edinburgh from 2006 to 2013. He is author of many books, including Resurrection and the Moral Order: An Outline for Evangelical Ethics (Eerdmans, 1986) and The Desire of the Nations: Rediscovering the Roots of Political Theology (Cambridge University Press, 1999).

The Henry Center for Theological Understanding provides theological resources that help bridge the gap between the academy and the church. It houses a cluster of initiatives, each of which is aimed at applying practical Christian wisdom to important kingdom issues—for the good of the church, for the soul of the theological academy, for the sake of the world, and ultimately for the glory of God. The HCTU seeks to ground each of these initiatives in Scripture, and it pursues these goals collaboratively, in order to train a new generation of wise interpreters of the Word—lay persons and scholars alike—for the sake of tomorrow’s church, academy, and world.

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