Natural law has long been a cornerstone of Christian political thought, providing moral norms that ground law in a shareable account of human goods and obligations. Despite this history, twentieth and twenty-first-century evangelicals have proved quite reticent to embrace natural law, casting it as a relic of scholastic Roman Catholicism that underestimates the import of scripture and the division between Christians and non-Christians. As recent critics have noted, this reluctance has posed significant problems for the coherence and completeness of evangelical political reflections. Responding to evangelically-minded thinkers increasing calls for a re-engagement with natural law, this volume explores the problems and prospects attending evangelical rapprochement with natural law. Many of the chapters are optimistic about an evangelical re-appropriation of natural law, but note ways in which evangelical commitments might lend distinctive shape to this engagement.

Jesse Covington is assistant professor of political science at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA.Bryan McGrawis an assistant professor of politics and international relations at Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL.Micah Watson is director of the Center for Politics& Religion and assistant professor of political science at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee.

IntroductionPart I: Understanding Evangelical Discomfort with Natural LawChapter 1: Burying the Wrong Corpse: Evangelicals and Natural LawJ. Daryl Charles, Bryan CollegeChapter 2: Karl Barths Eschatological (rejection of) Natural LawJesse Couenhoven, Villanova UniversityChapter 3: The Doctrine of Creation and the Possibilities of an Evangelical Natural LawBryan McGraw, Wheaton CollegePart II: Evangelicalism and Natural Law: Continuing QuestionsChapter 4: Natural Law and Mosaic Law in the Theology of Paul: Their Relationship and Its ImplicationsDavid VanDrunen, Westminster Seminary CaliforniaChapter 5: Natural Law, God, and Human Dignity Robert George, Princeton UniversityChapter 6: Reason and Will in Natural LawPaul DeHart, Texas State UniversitySan MarcosChapter 7: Natural Law: Friend of Common Grace?Vincent Bacote, Wheaton CollegePart III: An Evangelical Natural Law Tradition? Charting a Path ForwardChapter 8: The Grammar of Virtue: St. Augustine and the Natural LawJesse Covington, Westmont CollegeChapter 9: C.S. Lewis as Natural Law Evangelist: Evangelical Political Thought and the People in the PewMicah Watson, Union UniversityChapter 10: The Natural Law and the Church as Counter-PolisMatthew D. Wright, Biola UniversityChapter 11: More Than a Passing Fancy? The Evangelical Engagement with Natural LawJ. Budziszewski, University of Texas, Austin