Natural law for evangelicals

The authors of Hopeful Realism (IVP Academic, 254 pp.) have taken on an ambitious project: to convince evangelicals of the Biblical warrant of natural law and to make the case that liberal democracy is the best expression of natural law politics in our present context. This work tries to develop, rather than just retrieve, an evangelical natural law political theory.

Roman Catholics have a more robust natural law tradition, and Hopeful Realism offers something specifically directed at a sizable slice of Christendom that often gets short shrift when it comes to the subject. Alongside other recent works by Andrew Walker and Brad Littlejohn, Hopeful Realism makes a good starting place for evangelicals to consider natural law.

The book’s best material is found in Chapter 4, which provides practical principles for how the Christian natural law tradition can offer better guidance for politics. These principles are applied in the second half of the book, and they’re essential for evangelicals looking for clear-headed political action. I will likely incorporate them into my own teaching.

The second and third principles—discerning and choosing from among limited and complicated options and applying prudential considerations—demand the most attention. The authors help evangelicals recognize that options in politics are hardly ever uncomplicated. Simple wins rarely exist, so we must always consider trade-offs. We must seek, among the limited and imperfect options available to us, those which best secure the primary goods we seek while minimizing harm to other goods. But we must also choose means which are not fundamentally at odds with our ends. This final consideration is often where much of the contemporary debate really lies, and it deserves a bit more attention than the authors give it. But at least they introduce the theme.

There is a lot to build on with regard to these practical principles, which they ably model in Part 2 of the book. The material on marriage is quite good, though the chapter starts off strangely. The authors state that matters regarding marriage are more complex, unclear, and bitterly contested than those related to economics, religious liberty, and war. I think many would take issue with this assessment. However, from there they defend, in accordance with natural law principles, a traditional view of marriage. They define marriage as having two intrinsic purposes—unitive and procreative—and three characteristics to help realize those—complementarity, exclusivity, and permanence. (Traditional Christians will immediately notice the absence of the symbolic/sacramental purpose of marriage. But this is understandable given the book’s focus on natural law.) They offer sensitive and insightful qualifiers about infertility and also modest gestures at the need to develop more robust understandings of how this complementarity applies to parenting—not just the bearing—of children. Marriage is a public good, and society needs provisions and guidelines to help mothers maximize time with young children and put pressure on men to father their children. The authors round out this chapter with an intelligent exploration of the various options for promoting traditional marriage. The chapter on war and coercion contrasting the just war tradition of natural law with pacifism and (Machiavellian) realism is also illuminating.

However, the package of four political principles which they draw from natural law—the common good and civic friendship; confessional pluralism and religious liberty; democracy and decentralization; and restraint and liberty—is idiosyncratic within the tradition of natural law. The common good is always involved, and the dance of restraint and liberty is a common theme. One could even see how decentralization might arise from subsidiarity (which is much more common). But this is not at all uncomplicated. And democracy is simply not an agreed-upon principle of natural law, nor is “confessional pluralism” (which is a much more novel neo-Calvinist emphasis). And the material on “religious liberty” demands a much more sophisticated exposition than is offered.

This leads to my primary concern about the arguments as they are presented: The authors are too uncharitable in their engagement with the positions of those—including many who affirm natural law—who would challenge their particular emphasis on pluralism and religious liberty and would contest the idea of public neutrality on moral and religious issues.

I am no Christian nationalist or integralist, but all sorts of postliberals offer important arguments regarding the contemporary liberal democratic order that are summarily dismissed here. Yes, our authors say that they merely offer a qualified endorsement of liberal democracy, but then they view as highly suspect and unserious any fundamental critique of the present order. The book would benefit from a more nuanced analysis of the history of American democracy, especially as it pertains to religious liberty.

Furthermore, the defense of pluralism is simply far too strong, especially the attempt to ground it in Augustine’s thought. The authors at least mention Augustine’s conflict with the Donatist sect, but they overextend his teaching on the two cities and the intermixing of them in this present age in their defense of public pluralism. Augustine would not countenance this. Augustine later chastened his Constantinian enthusiasm, but he still regarded the public honoring of Christ and protection of the Church as a fulfillment of prophecy. And even our authors are a bit perplexing here, because at one point they strongly reject any form of a confessional state, but then later suggest some openness to softer forms of establishment.

This ambitious work accomplishes quite a bit. The authors have developed a unique evangelical inflection of the natural law tradition. The practical principles offer much promise for political guidance. I pray that many evangelicals embrace them. I also pray that they and those who take up their project leave room for some of the fundamental challenges offered by fellow travelers and friends.