In his 1919 lecture "Uber die Idee einer Theologie der Kultur," (17) Paul Tillich argues a similar point by asserting that authentic religious experience is found amid the triadic interplay of content, form, and meaning (Gehalt), to which he links the terms autonomy, heteronomy, and
theonomy. Content denotes something objective in its simple existence that represents what we culturally value.
(15) With his autonomy/heteronomy dichotomy, Kant could not see a third possibility that Pope Saint John Paul II offers in Veritatis Splendor, which he called "participated
theonomy." (16) Although John Paul does not cite Kant, his "participated
theonomy" is clearly offered as a solution to the autonomy/heteronomy dichotomy.
Evil's will is not bound by logic, justice, or any pre-existing standard of the "good." In this sense, evil strives to emulate the God of
Theonomy, the God of pure will, that in theologian John Feinberg's words is a God, who if it
As Choi has rightly pointed out, "The task of cultural theology is to reveal '
theonomy' in the culture of autonomy, identify the danger of theology of religions, which is relativism (secularization) of autonomy, and the danger of ecclesiastical theology, which is absolutism of
theonomy, and aim for organic unity of
theonomy and autonomy (Konvivenz)." (4) For this task, we need to move beyond Niebuhr and Tillich and grasp the complexity of cultural communication, the identity struggle of human and Christian cultures, and various approaches of Christianity manifested in history.
Among the topics are Islam and Islamic natural law, the role of natural law and natural right in the search for a universal ethic, ecocide and Christian natural law, natural law as a source of inspiration, from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh: toward an epideictic rhetoric of natural law, the political common good: from the nation-state to a global perspective, natural law as a "work of reason:" understanding the metaphysics of participated
theonomy, and pragmatic and christological foundations of natural law.
Rushdoony promoted a concept called "
theonomy," which translates literally to "God's law." He argued for the implementation of Old Testament law, as a superior alternative to secular law.
(Sanford admits to favoring a more secular and welcoming national vision than that of the Christian right.) Their absolutism often results in downright theocratic aims, with Rushdoony chief amongst those advocating a turn toward
theonomy in American law.
By choosing radical
theonomy or radical autonomy over
theonomy, humans sin and so are alienated from their authentic selves.
Theonomy liberates the human will from the potentially destructive relativism of its subjectivity; human autonomy protects the absoluteness of the law against the occasionally negative consequences of its time-alienated objectivity.
Bujo sums this up when he writes that "one can become like God only by acting freely, autonomously, and creatively; this does not in any way abolish the
theonomy." (39) Human reason has a mandate to explore the truths in the world, including ethical truths.
In Orthodoxy, the good is
theonomy: the fulfillment of humankind is participation in and communion with the divine Life itself (2 Pet.