¹ O'Donovan, Oliver, The Desire of the Nations: Rediscovering the Roots of Political Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996)Google Scholar. All references to this work will be given in the text.

² O'Donovan's book has been widely reviewed. See, for example, Meilaender, Gilbert, ‘Recovering Christendom’ in First Things 77 (November 1997)Google Scholar; 36–42; Austin, Victor L., ‘“Method” in Oliver O'Donovan's Political Theology’ in Anglican Theological Review 79:3 (1997): 583–593Google Scholar; review by West, Charles C., The Princeton Seminary Bulletin 19:1 (1998): 94–97Google Scholar; Craycraft, Kenneth R. Jr, ‘Return to Christendom’ in The Review of Politics 60:1 (1998): 204–207CrossRefGoogle Scholar; review by Elshtain, Jean Bethke in Theological Studies 58 (1997): 749–751.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³ Oliver O'Donovan, ‘Liberty’ in ‘The Gospel and the Common Good’ cited in Victor L. Austin, ‘Method in Oliver O'Donovan's Political Theology’, p. 592.

⁴ For this account of moral reflection see Schweiker, William, Responsibility and Christian Ethics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995)Google Scholar. In this response I forego considering practical and metaethical questions; I focus on hermeneutical, normative, and fundamental dimensions of reflection. O'Donovan insists that The Desire of the Nations is a work in political theology and not ethics; it is simply missing careful consideration of what I call the practical dimension of ethics. With respect to the metaethical dimension of ethics, hence the question of how to validate claims, O'Donovan takes it that Christian ethics finds it validity solely in the Gospel. He writes, for instance, that ‘Christian ethics must arise from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Otherwise it cannot be Christian ethics’. O'Donovan, Oliver, Resurrection and Moral Order: An Outline for Evangelic Ethics (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1986), p. 11Google Scholar. One cannot ask about the validity of Christian ethics beyond this claim about the Gospel. O'Donovan provides in this way a confessional political theology. For these reasons I do not consider practical and metaethical concerns but focus on other dimensions of ethics.

⁵ For a careful discussion of these matters see Ricoeur, Paul, Oneself as Another, translated by Blarney, Kathleen (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992).Google Scholar

⁶ See Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II/I qq. 90–106 and Tillich, Paul, Morality and Beyond, forward by Schweiker, William (Louisville, KY: Westminster/ John Knox Press, 1995)Google Scholar. Other authors could be cited, of course. The point is that some version of‘natural law’ is found in various versions of Christianity. For Barth's ethics see Church Dogmatics, esp. III/2, but also his Ethics translated by G. Bromiley (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1981).

⁷ See Hobbes, Thomas, Leviathan, edited by Tuck, R. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).Google Scholar

⁸ For current attempts to construe the moral space of life see Murdoch, Iris, Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals (London: Penguin Press/Allen Lane, 1992)Google Scholar, Taylor, Charles, Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990)Google Scholar, and Gustafson, James M., Ethics from a Theocentric Perspective 2 vols (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981, 1984).Google Scholar

⁹ It would be interesting on this point to compare O'Donovan with another great twentieth-century Anglican moralist, namely Kirk, Kenneth. See his Conscience and Its Problems: An Introduction to Casuistry, introduction by Smith, David H. (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1999).Google Scholar

¹⁰ For a helpful discussion of this and what it might mean for feminist theological ethics see Cristina Traina, L. H., Feminist Ethics and Natural Law: The End of Anathemas (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1999).Google Scholar

¹¹ For the most powerful articulation of this claim see Scharlemann, Robert, The Reason of Following: Christology and the Ecstatic I (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991).Google Scholar

¹² Of course, like all good theologians, O'Donovan knows that analogies work from God to human beings. For the importance of analogy in theology see Tracy, David, The Analogical Imagination: Christian Theology and the Culture of Pluralism (New York, NY: Crossroad, 1981).Google Scholar

¹³ In this respect, O'Donovan's argument is like that of so-called postliberal theologians. On this approach to theology see Lindbeck, George, The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster, 1984)Google Scholar. For a recent criticism from within this camp see Tanner, Kathryn, Theories of Culture: A New Agenda for Theology (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1997).Google Scholar

¹⁴ On the need to interrelate symbolic discourse, concept formation, and theory within theological ethics see Schweiker, William, Power, Value and Conviction: Theological Ethics in the Postmodern Age (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 1998).Google Scholar

¹⁵ For a non-reductionistic yet theological reading of scripture see William Schweiker and Welker, Michael, ‘A New Paradigm of Theological and Biblical Inquiry’ in Power, Powerlessness, and the Divine: New Inquiries in Bible and Theology, edited by Rigby, Cynthia (Atlanta: Scholar's Press, 1998), pp. 3–20.Google Scholar

¹⁶ One recalls H. Richard Niebuhr's comment that not all knowledge of God and man must be derived from scripture. For an example of his method in action see his The Responsible Self: An Essay in Christian Moral Philosophy, introduction by Gustafson, James M. with forward by Schweiker, William (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1999)Google Scholar. No doubt my concerns here express my own Christian confession, specifically the capacious understanding of the source of theology found in United Methodism. On this see Cobb, John B. Jr., Grace and Responsibility: A Wesleyan Theology for Today (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995).Google Scholar

¹⁷ Walzer, Michael, Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pluralism and Equality (New York, NY: Basic Books, 1983).Google Scholar

¹⁸ On the reality of the new global cultural flows see Appadurai, Arjun, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1996).Google Scholar

¹⁹ See Rawls, John, Political Liberalism (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1993)Google Scholar and Gamwell, Franklin I., The Meaning of Religious Freedom: Modern Politics and the Democratic Resolution (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1995)Google Scholar. On globalization see Robertson, Roland, Globalization: Social Theory and Global Culture (London: SAGE Publications, 1992).Google Scholar