Resources for Reformed Approaches to Natural Law

I get occasional queries about theonomy, reconstructionism, and alternatives to the same. The folks at Covenant OPC (Abilene, TX ) have put together a terrific page of resources on the Reformed approach to natural law. Here’s an essay I did several years ago. David VanDrunen and Stephen Grabill are doing the best work on this question now.

Here are some bibliographic leads for reading VanDrunen’s work on these questions:

“Abraham Kuyper and the Reformed Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms Traditions” (forthcoming, Calvin Theological Journal).

“Biblical Theology and the Culture War” Kerux Online Journal of Biblical Theology.

“The Importance of the Penultimate: Reformed Social Thought and the Contemporary Critiques of the Liberal Society,” Journal of Markets and Morality 9, no.2 (Fall 2006): 219–49.

“Natural Law in Early Calvinist Resistance Theory”Journal of Law and Religion 21, no. 1 (2005–06): 143–67.

“Medieval Natural Law and the Reformation: A Comparison of Aquinas and Calvin,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly80, no.1 (2006): 77–98.

“The Two Kingdoms: A Reassessment of the Transformationist Calvin,”Calvin Theological Journal40 (2005): 248–66

“The Context of Natural Law: John Calvin’s Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms” Journal of Church and State 46 (Summer 2004): 503–25

“Natural Law, Custom, and Common Law in the Theology of Aquinas and Calvin,”University of British Columbia Law Review vol. 33, no. 3 (2000): 699–17.

“The Role of Natural Law in the Westminster Confession and Early Reformed Orthodoxy,” in The Westminster Confession into the 21st Century, vol. 3, ed. J. Ligon Duncan (forthcoming, Mentor).

“Natural Law and Christians in the Public Square,” in Modern Reformation, March/April Vol. 15 No. 2 2006 Pages 12-15.


“Common Law and the Free Scociety,” Religion & Liberty, vol. 9, no. 4 (July and August, 1999).

See Review of David’s Biblical Case for Natural Law by Daniel R. Hyde

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