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Resurrection and Moral Order: An Outline for Evangelical Ethics
In this seminal work Oliver O'Donovan delineates a convincing theological ethics from an evangelical standpoint that illumines such important concepts as freedom, authority, nature, history, and revelation. For this revised edition O'Donovan has added a substantial prologue that, taking account of critical responses to the first edition, more fully locates his argument and position in relation to some current alternatives.
299 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
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About the author
Oliver O'Donovan
47 books58 followersOliver O'Donovan FBA FRSE (born 1945) is a scholar known for his work in the field of Christian ethics. He has also made contributions to political theology, both contemporary and historical.
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November 19, 2012
O’Donovan takes up the challenge to expound on what Christian moral concepts really are, after a long tradition in certain strands of Christianity of a legalistic and simple ethic rooted in divine command theory with all its close relations to a Kantian moralism. O’Donovan argues that legalism strives to ensure simplicity in ethical choice through comprehensive law; in Christian terms, a choice for or against God’s law, or in Kantian terms a choice for or against duty and universal moral law. While the simple final decision is still present in legalist forms of ethics (‘law-ethic’), in an antinomian position (‘faith-ethic’) the need for moral questions is disregarded altogether. Both positions leave no task of discernment for the moral agent and, when embodied in how Christians devote themselves, reduce evangelical freedom (p262). Both such positions are examples of “man taking responsibility for himself…without the good news that God has taken responsibility for him” (p12). As opposed to such positions, morality, O’Donovan argues, is “man’s participation in the created order” (p76). O’Donovan reaffirms that, in contrast of finding middle ground between what he refers to as “law and license”, the task of finding a “different path altogether” (p12) is one of theology. “The book…is an assertion of the ‘moral theology’ which ought to be present in any ‘Christian ethic’.” (p viii).
O’Donovan starts his reflection on Christian ethics at “God’s gift in Jesus Christ”, but quickly concentrates on the resurrection as starting point “because it tells us of God’s vindication of his creation, and so of our created life” and following 1Petr 1:3: “…we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (p13). In the resurrection of Christ both creation is restored and the kingdom of God is newly introduced.
Christian ethics, therefore, is not something to be left to the voluntary choice of each one on his or her own. There is an objective reality to which Christian ethics is referred. O’Donovan argues that there is a “divinely-given order of things in which human nature itself is located” (p16). However, due to our fallenness, our perception of that order is confused. Any certainty we still may have on order lies in how God revealed himself and his works to us. O’Donovan points towards the resurrection assuring stability and permanence, rejecting any polarization between an ethic based on an ontology of creation or on a revelation of redemption. Resurrection implies that “we look not only back to created order which is vindicated, but forwards to our eschatological participation in that order” (p22). There is respect for natural structures of the world, even human ordinances of the world for the sake of the Lord (1Petr 2:13), while at the same time we look forward to its radical transformation (p58).
Herein lies a Christian freedom or according to O’Donovan; the participation in Christ’s authority within the created order (p24). This is more that the classical idea of freedom of man as moral agent to respond to what God has done (p23), which can easily leave one with a focus on inward moral power which is not from the Holy Spirit (Montanism).
With Christ, man’s relationship with natural order has changed from servant to child (Gal 3:23-4:7). Such freedom brings a new relation to the natural order, a restored lordship “by which he calls things by their names (Gn 2:19)”, the possibility of creative discernment, ‘the mind of Christ’ (1 Cor 2:16)” (p25). Such freedom is not situational, a Christian morality without any rules. Man cannot rely on agape (Nygren), as it “cannot exercise its own creativity independent of God’s creativity” (p25). Respect for the order needs to remain, the “Spirit forms and brings to expression the appropriate pattern of free response to objective reality” (p25).
Such a free response is characterized in general terms as ‘faith working through love’ (Gal 5:6). “Love is the overall shape of Christian ethics, the form of human participation in created order” (p25). The task of Christian ethics is the ordening of love “in accordance with the order discovered in its object” (p26). This is a freedom not focussed on overthrowing given order, but to rescue it from the emptiness in which it has fallen (Rom 8:20-21). Such creativity is achieved by being perceptive (p26), attempting “to act for any being on the basis of appreciation of that being” (p26). According to O’Donovan expounding the sense of love, the fruit of God’s presence within us is (i) wisdom – the “intellectual apprehension of the order of things” and (ii) delight – “affective attention to something simply for what it is and for the fact that it is” (p26).
Knowledge is and has always been man’s mode of participation in the universe (p89). How the order in the universe is available to our knowledge therefore remains a vital question. O’Donovan gives a sketch how such a knowledge must be like:
• it is a knowledge of things in their relations to the totality of things (p77) – the shapes of the whole give meaning to the particular,
• such knowledge of the whole is only from within and not through an Archimedean point of transcendence,
• such knowledge is knowledge from man’s position in the universe, compromised by the fall,
• such knowledge must be ignorant of the end of history, vindicated by God’s revelation “that created good and man’s knowledge of it is not to be overthrown in history” (p85).
O’Donovan goes on to point out that true knowledge is only in Christ, “the Logos made flesh in the first century AD” (p85). Such knowledge is exclusive, but with the inclusive objective of the “whole order of things created, restored and transformed” (p85). O’Donovan wants to maintain the polarity between revelation in the particular and created order in the universal. Later on he explains revelatory knowledge as a knowledge of created order which man never has possessed before, adding the qualification that it confers a knowledge of the shape of history never possessed before (p89). O’Donovan makes the important point that such knowledge cannot just be learned through steady accumulation, as it requires a conversion from false perceptions of moral order. Neither can it be argued that moral learning is impossible, as life is nothing else than a sequence of repentings – “a radical way of freeing ourselves from justification by works” (p92) and a conception that makes all tradition suspect in an ecclesiological sense (p92). O’Donovan points towards moral learning as ‘thinking’, an “intellectual penetration and exploration of reality”, containing “depths of meaning and experience into which we must reach” (p92).
Conversion and repentence implies that moral learning is founded in conflict (p93). True and false forms occur in one reality. The life of those who follow Christ means to take up the cross. “The path to full participation lies through being excluded” (p95), often from form of created good that are within the right and privilege of Adam’s restored children. Such conflict does not exclude but calls for a wise realism, a careful discernment of situations, often a discriminating case-by-case deliberation (p97) and also calls for a virtue of moderation when dealing with norms for the public life (p97). The primary concern for Christian moral thought, according to O’Donovan is existential, not legislative (p97). O’Donovan: “The cross of Christ may demand a self-denial which no social norms, not even those by the church, can demand.” (p97).
O'Donovan produced a momentous work, one that will have deep implications not only for theology, but also to faithful Christians who try to find a way forward in the swamps of what is called Christian ethics nowadays. Highly recommended!
O’Donovan starts his reflection on Christian ethics at “God’s gift in Jesus Christ”, but quickly concentrates on the resurrection as starting point “because it tells us of God’s vindication of his creation, and so of our created life” and following 1Petr 1:3: “…we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (p13). In the resurrection of Christ both creation is restored and the kingdom of God is newly introduced.
Christian ethics, therefore, is not something to be left to the voluntary choice of each one on his or her own. There is an objective reality to which Christian ethics is referred. O’Donovan argues that there is a “divinely-given order of things in which human nature itself is located” (p16). However, due to our fallenness, our perception of that order is confused. Any certainty we still may have on order lies in how God revealed himself and his works to us. O’Donovan points towards the resurrection assuring stability and permanence, rejecting any polarization between an ethic based on an ontology of creation or on a revelation of redemption. Resurrection implies that “we look not only back to created order which is vindicated, but forwards to our eschatological participation in that order” (p22). There is respect for natural structures of the world, even human ordinances of the world for the sake of the Lord (1Petr 2:13), while at the same time we look forward to its radical transformation (p58).
Herein lies a Christian freedom or according to O’Donovan; the participation in Christ’s authority within the created order (p24). This is more that the classical idea of freedom of man as moral agent to respond to what God has done (p23), which can easily leave one with a focus on inward moral power which is not from the Holy Spirit (Montanism).
With Christ, man’s relationship with natural order has changed from servant to child (Gal 3:23-4:7). Such freedom brings a new relation to the natural order, a restored lordship “by which he calls things by their names (Gn 2:19)”, the possibility of creative discernment, ‘the mind of Christ’ (1 Cor 2:16)” (p25). Such freedom is not situational, a Christian morality without any rules. Man cannot rely on agape (Nygren), as it “cannot exercise its own creativity independent of God’s creativity” (p25). Respect for the order needs to remain, the “Spirit forms and brings to expression the appropriate pattern of free response to objective reality” (p25).
Such a free response is characterized in general terms as ‘faith working through love’ (Gal 5:6). “Love is the overall shape of Christian ethics, the form of human participation in created order” (p25). The task of Christian ethics is the ordening of love “in accordance with the order discovered in its object” (p26). This is a freedom not focussed on overthrowing given order, but to rescue it from the emptiness in which it has fallen (Rom 8:20-21). Such creativity is achieved by being perceptive (p26), attempting “to act for any being on the basis of appreciation of that being” (p26). According to O’Donovan expounding the sense of love, the fruit of God’s presence within us is (i) wisdom – the “intellectual apprehension of the order of things” and (ii) delight – “affective attention to something simply for what it is and for the fact that it is” (p26).
Knowledge is and has always been man’s mode of participation in the universe (p89). How the order in the universe is available to our knowledge therefore remains a vital question. O’Donovan gives a sketch how such a knowledge must be like:
• it is a knowledge of things in their relations to the totality of things (p77) – the shapes of the whole give meaning to the particular,
• such knowledge of the whole is only from within and not through an Archimedean point of transcendence,
• such knowledge is knowledge from man’s position in the universe, compromised by the fall,
• such knowledge must be ignorant of the end of history, vindicated by God’s revelation “that created good and man’s knowledge of it is not to be overthrown in history” (p85).
O’Donovan goes on to point out that true knowledge is only in Christ, “the Logos made flesh in the first century AD” (p85). Such knowledge is exclusive, but with the inclusive objective of the “whole order of things created, restored and transformed” (p85). O’Donovan wants to maintain the polarity between revelation in the particular and created order in the universal. Later on he explains revelatory knowledge as a knowledge of created order which man never has possessed before, adding the qualification that it confers a knowledge of the shape of history never possessed before (p89). O’Donovan makes the important point that such knowledge cannot just be learned through steady accumulation, as it requires a conversion from false perceptions of moral order. Neither can it be argued that moral learning is impossible, as life is nothing else than a sequence of repentings – “a radical way of freeing ourselves from justification by works” (p92) and a conception that makes all tradition suspect in an ecclesiological sense (p92). O’Donovan points towards moral learning as ‘thinking’, an “intellectual penetration and exploration of reality”, containing “depths of meaning and experience into which we must reach” (p92).
Conversion and repentence implies that moral learning is founded in conflict (p93). True and false forms occur in one reality. The life of those who follow Christ means to take up the cross. “The path to full participation lies through being excluded” (p95), often from form of created good that are within the right and privilege of Adam’s restored children. Such conflict does not exclude but calls for a wise realism, a careful discernment of situations, often a discriminating case-by-case deliberation (p97) and also calls for a virtue of moderation when dealing with norms for the public life (p97). The primary concern for Christian moral thought, according to O’Donovan is existential, not legislative (p97). O’Donovan: “The cross of Christ may demand a self-denial which no social norms, not even those by the church, can demand.” (p97).
O'Donovan produced a momentous work, one that will have deep implications not only for theology, but also to faithful Christians who try to find a way forward in the swamps of what is called Christian ethics nowadays. Highly recommended!
August 1, 2018
Christian ethics depends upon Christ's resurrection from the dead. It affirms both the kingship of Christ and natural law, for creation is affirmed in Christ's resurrection. O'Donovan argues that "evangelical" ethics is ethical living in light of the renewed and renewing creation. The created order--the order of creation, the purpose for which it was established--is vindicated in the cross/resurrection of Christ and is given back to God's people.
He then proceeds to critique historicist ethics, particularly the Marxist form. Following, he argues that a corollary of ethics is epistemology: the Christian's knowledge is in key and in part a *knowledge in Christ.* While not a primary or exhaustive part of knowledge, *experience* is a factor in knowing. For the Christian knowledge often comes in light of suffering and the way of the Cross (my favorite part of the book).
Difference with Hauerwas: OO begins ethics with the Christ-event and resurrection; hauerwas with the practices of the Church.
Ethics and final redemption: Jesus sits at God’s right hand and gives the spirit as a guarantee. We can be confident about reconciliation because of Christ’s work on the cross.
I found his section on "eschatology" most compelling and most underdeveloped. He seems to posit a realized eschatology. This is good. He anticipates on one hand the coming resurrection but also the the powerful in-breaking of the eschaton into the present order (see thesis of book). Some excerpts:
The resurrection of Christ redeems and transforms the created order (56).
The work of the Holy Spirit defines an age--the age in which all times are immediately present to that time, the time of Christ (103).
The Spirit and Christian Freedom
The resurrection focuses our participation forward. It allows me to respond as a moral agent to God’s order (23). The gift of subjective freedom must be an aspect of our being-in-Christ. The coming of Christ throws off the law as pedagaigos. It makes us adults in God’s order.
OBJECTIVE REALITY
Created Order
creation: the order and coherence in which the world is composed (31). It generates an ethical terminology:
1. end–A is ordered to serve B;
2. Creation’s being for Christ is related to being in Christ
3. kind: creates which have generic equivalence in Christ can be ordered to one another teleologically (here O’Donovan avoids the scale of being, but allows at the same time that man is probably more important than rocks).
4. Here OO (34-36) tries to navigate the problems of how creation’s subordinate ends are ordered to each other (per Hegel, Hume, etc).
he attack upon ends: the polarity of will and nature
reality without “kinds” is nominalism. Reality without ends is voluntarism. Abstracting man from teleological concerns opens the danger to a mechanization of man (52).
ESCHATOLOGY AND HISTORY
Created order cannot be itself while it lacks the Christ-redeemed rule of man that was intended to it (55). Eschatology answers the question of what creation’s temporal extensions mean. The ascension is an unfolding of the significance of the resurrection (57). This means Christian ethics looks both backwards and forwards.
Natural Ends and History
historicism: all teleology is time-bound, historical teleology. It implies that the fulfillment of history is generated from within history (64). The Reformers’ insistence on sola fide/gratia cut this move off at the pass. “Grace alone” means God is at work from the outside.
1. Platonic form: per Pannenberg it incorporates not only the Parmenidean arche, but the Socratic arete. The notion of the good contains an element of futurity.
2. criticism: when history is made the categorical matrix for understanding reality, then it can no longer be history. For a story to be a story, it has to be a story about something (and not just a story about the idea of story).
3. The patristic response: if creation is extended infinitely in time, then it has infinite possibilities. By speaking of creation ex nihilo, as finite, they could say the possibilities in history were defined in terms of creation’s being God’s gift (63).
Historicist Ethics: strong tendency to manipulate and intervene. Nature does not have meaning from some transhistorical given, but arises from within history by natural forces.
Western political theology was able to keep a distance from historicist conclusions (for a while, anyway). It starts from the assertion that the kingdoms of this world are not yet the kingdoms of the Christ, since they do not reflect his judgments. This allows the believer, who is absolutely subject to Christ, to be relatively subject to earthly powers. This relative subjectivity opens a “space” between the believer and the powers. Further, since politics does not have to reconcile the world, it can get along with its own God-ordained business (72).
If there is no locus of value outside of history, then history will supply its own. In this case the kingdom of God becomes a form without content.
KNOWLEDGE IN CHRIST
Knowledge has subjective/objective aspects.
1. knowledge of things in their relation to the totality of things (77). Grasping the shape of the whole.
2. The NT contrasts faith/sight, not faith/reason.
3. subjective aspect: the more encompassing an object is, the harder it is to transcend it and remain neutral.
4. universals: our conception of “kinds” (genera) is always open to new particulars. However, the knowledge of the created order from within avoids the empiricist’s dilemma opposed to a knowledge of universals from above.
5. knowledge is a human way of participating in the created order (81). knowledge is therefore tied to man’s faithful performance of a task.
In summary, knowledge is a knowledge-of-things from within the created order and is vindicated by the resurrection of Christ, who vindicates the created order and gives it back. Knowledge is a knowledge hidden in Christ.
Exclusive Knowledge
This knowledge of things in Christ is not of an ethereal Logos, but a particular human. It is a particular knowledge of the whole order of things created and transformed (85).
Natural Law: how to avoid the ambiguity which attributes universality, not only to knowledge, but to being. First principles, for Thomas, are self-evident (ST II.I.94.2)
It is moral knowledge of the natural order co-ordinated with obedience (87). It is known by participation, not transcendence.
The Authority of Christ
The spirit bears witness to the Resurrected Christ’s authority. Spontainety and tradition are dual aspects of the same error: failure to critically evaluate the Spirits. What is tradition but spontaneity in slow motion? They are not necessarily wrong; just not self-evident.
The authority of God is located in the public realm (Resurrection). Moral authority is the authority of the renewed created order where ends and kinds participate.
Evangelical Authority
* “When the apostle contrasted law and gospel, he was pointing to the dialectical tension in Israel’s history between the experience of God through promise and the experience of God through command” (151).
Some criticisms:
The book left me with questions concerning "what to do?" Having read it, what should be my response? This is probably the fault of the reader, and thus I need to reread it.
He then proceeds to critique historicist ethics, particularly the Marxist form. Following, he argues that a corollary of ethics is epistemology: the Christian's knowledge is in key and in part a *knowledge in Christ.* While not a primary or exhaustive part of knowledge, *experience* is a factor in knowing. For the Christian knowledge often comes in light of suffering and the way of the Cross (my favorite part of the book).
Difference with Hauerwas: OO begins ethics with the Christ-event and resurrection; hauerwas with the practices of the Church.
Ethics and final redemption: Jesus sits at God’s right hand and gives the spirit as a guarantee. We can be confident about reconciliation because of Christ’s work on the cross.
I found his section on "eschatology" most compelling and most underdeveloped. He seems to posit a realized eschatology. This is good. He anticipates on one hand the coming resurrection but also the the powerful in-breaking of the eschaton into the present order (see thesis of book). Some excerpts:
The resurrection of Christ redeems and transforms the created order (56).
The work of the Holy Spirit defines an age--the age in which all times are immediately present to that time, the time of Christ (103).
The Spirit and Christian Freedom
The resurrection focuses our participation forward. It allows me to respond as a moral agent to God’s order (23). The gift of subjective freedom must be an aspect of our being-in-Christ. The coming of Christ throws off the law as pedagaigos. It makes us adults in God’s order.
OBJECTIVE REALITY
Created Order
creation: the order and coherence in which the world is composed (31). It generates an ethical terminology:
1. end–A is ordered to serve B;
2. Creation’s being for Christ is related to being in Christ
3. kind: creates which have generic equivalence in Christ can be ordered to one another teleologically (here O’Donovan avoids the scale of being, but allows at the same time that man is probably more important than rocks).
4. Here OO (34-36) tries to navigate the problems of how creation’s subordinate ends are ordered to each other (per Hegel, Hume, etc).
he attack upon ends: the polarity of will and nature
reality without “kinds” is nominalism. Reality without ends is voluntarism. Abstracting man from teleological concerns opens the danger to a mechanization of man (52).
ESCHATOLOGY AND HISTORY
Created order cannot be itself while it lacks the Christ-redeemed rule of man that was intended to it (55). Eschatology answers the question of what creation’s temporal extensions mean. The ascension is an unfolding of the significance of the resurrection (57). This means Christian ethics looks both backwards and forwards.
Natural Ends and History
historicism: all teleology is time-bound, historical teleology. It implies that the fulfillment of history is generated from within history (64). The Reformers’ insistence on sola fide/gratia cut this move off at the pass. “Grace alone” means God is at work from the outside.
1. Platonic form: per Pannenberg it incorporates not only the Parmenidean arche, but the Socratic arete. The notion of the good contains an element of futurity.
2. criticism: when history is made the categorical matrix for understanding reality, then it can no longer be history. For a story to be a story, it has to be a story about something (and not just a story about the idea of story).
3. The patristic response: if creation is extended infinitely in time, then it has infinite possibilities. By speaking of creation ex nihilo, as finite, they could say the possibilities in history were defined in terms of creation’s being God’s gift (63).
Historicist Ethics: strong tendency to manipulate and intervene. Nature does not have meaning from some transhistorical given, but arises from within history by natural forces.
Western political theology was able to keep a distance from historicist conclusions (for a while, anyway). It starts from the assertion that the kingdoms of this world are not yet the kingdoms of the Christ, since they do not reflect his judgments. This allows the believer, who is absolutely subject to Christ, to be relatively subject to earthly powers. This relative subjectivity opens a “space” between the believer and the powers. Further, since politics does not have to reconcile the world, it can get along with its own God-ordained business (72).
If there is no locus of value outside of history, then history will supply its own. In this case the kingdom of God becomes a form without content.
KNOWLEDGE IN CHRIST
Knowledge has subjective/objective aspects.
1. knowledge of things in their relation to the totality of things (77). Grasping the shape of the whole.
2. The NT contrasts faith/sight, not faith/reason.
3. subjective aspect: the more encompassing an object is, the harder it is to transcend it and remain neutral.
4. universals: our conception of “kinds” (genera) is always open to new particulars. However, the knowledge of the created order from within avoids the empiricist’s dilemma opposed to a knowledge of universals from above.
5. knowledge is a human way of participating in the created order (81). knowledge is therefore tied to man’s faithful performance of a task.
In summary, knowledge is a knowledge-of-things from within the created order and is vindicated by the resurrection of Christ, who vindicates the created order and gives it back. Knowledge is a knowledge hidden in Christ.
Exclusive Knowledge
This knowledge of things in Christ is not of an ethereal Logos, but a particular human. It is a particular knowledge of the whole order of things created and transformed (85).
Natural Law: how to avoid the ambiguity which attributes universality, not only to knowledge, but to being. First principles, for Thomas, are self-evident (ST II.I.94.2)
It is moral knowledge of the natural order co-ordinated with obedience (87). It is known by participation, not transcendence.
The Authority of Christ
The spirit bears witness to the Resurrected Christ’s authority. Spontainety and tradition are dual aspects of the same error: failure to critically evaluate the Spirits. What is tradition but spontaneity in slow motion? They are not necessarily wrong; just not self-evident.
The authority of God is located in the public realm (Resurrection). Moral authority is the authority of the renewed created order where ends and kinds participate.
Evangelical Authority
* “When the apostle contrasted law and gospel, he was pointing to the dialectical tension in Israel’s history between the experience of God through promise and the experience of God through command” (151).
Some criticisms:
The book left me with questions concerning "what to do?" Having read it, what should be my response? This is probably the fault of the reader, and thus I need to reread it.
August 26, 2025
Simply profound. A dense work, but O'Donovan does a wonderful job arguing his thesis, namely, that "Christian ethics depends upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (13). The resurrection, as God's public vindication of creation, reorients Christian ethics towards its telos, while rooting its conception in God's creation. I wish theology was written like this more these days. O'Donovan shows that he has soaked himself in the primary sources, especially Augustine, and does not generalize or straw-man his opponents. This is a book for slow and careful reading, but there is great reward. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time.
December 5, 2018
A wonderfully detailed and subtly argued exposition of distinctively Christian ethics. O'Donovan's intellect is both insightful and independent, so that you rarely see him totally accept or totally reject any of the great ethical theories. It concludes with a moving exposition of the gospel and the relations of its promises to our ethical lives.
October 27, 2025
A few years ago this was a textbook for Regent College's course on pastoral ethics. I heard that the students in the class complained about this book and, I have to confess, I rolled my eyes. Resurrection and Moral Order, is a classic and Oliver O'Donovan is one of our foremost ethicists. Why don't the students want to be challenged to read this landmark book?
I now repent in sackcloth and ashes. The complainers were right. No doubt, it is true Resurrection and Moral Order is a classic and O'Donovan is one of the foremost evangelical ethicists of our time, but this book was a slog to get through. It demonstrates that for all a scholar's brilliance, they can be terrible writers.
I now repent in sackcloth and ashes. The complainers were right. No doubt, it is true Resurrection and Moral Order is a classic and O'Donovan is one of the foremost evangelical ethicists of our time, but this book was a slog to get through. It demonstrates that for all a scholar's brilliance, they can be terrible writers.
October 20, 2024
Filled with gems, and worth the read, but O’Donovan is a dense thinker, and his writing can often be hard to follow. Really four stars only because of lack of clarity.
January 20, 2024
This is a helpful work outlining a distinctively Christian ethical system. The resurrection of Christ is the ground upon which our moral deliberation and evaluation takes place. In the resurrection, the natural order of creation is restored and the eschatological ordering of our being is made clear.
August 1, 2025
Digest to come
December 15, 2023
I cannot give this book enough stars.
This is the most challenging and difficult book I have read in a long time. It was clearly written for the academic community and assumes a knowledge of academic ethics that I lack, but I was able to hobble along fairly well with my cursory understanding of Kant and background in basic Christian theology.
O'Donovan's writing is superb and his style engaging, which seems like quite the accomplishment for such a dense academic volume. While there were definitely chapters where the line of his argument escaped me, overall, I found his arguments convincing. I especially appreciated his ability to hold space for nuance and ambiguity. I also found him to be a skillful exegete, shedding light on biblical passages which have long been opaque for me.
By the end, I found myself thoroughly edified and was thankful for the resolution he brought to my thinking about ethical questions that have plagued me, off-and-on, literally for years, some of which are the fruit of my pietistic upbringing. I can heartily recommend this book to anyone looking for a thoughtful and persuasive account of Christian ethics.
This is the most challenging and difficult book I have read in a long time. It was clearly written for the academic community and assumes a knowledge of academic ethics that I lack, but I was able to hobble along fairly well with my cursory understanding of Kant and background in basic Christian theology.
O'Donovan's writing is superb and his style engaging, which seems like quite the accomplishment for such a dense academic volume. While there were definitely chapters where the line of his argument escaped me, overall, I found his arguments convincing. I especially appreciated his ability to hold space for nuance and ambiguity. I also found him to be a skillful exegete, shedding light on biblical passages which have long been opaque for me.
By the end, I found myself thoroughly edified and was thankful for the resolution he brought to my thinking about ethical questions that have plagued me, off-and-on, literally for years, some of which are the fruit of my pietistic upbringing. I can heartily recommend this book to anyone looking for a thoughtful and persuasive account of Christian ethics.
March 1, 2021
Much better than I anticipated. While I don't agree with every conclusion or the whole metaphysical foundation, this book has a lot of good stuff about ethics, law and grace, and eschatology.
Read
February 22, 2022I couldn't give this book a rating because I understood (optimistically) 30% of the content.
August 17, 2020
The volume is divided into three sections. The first establishes how Christian ethics must arise from the *OBJECTIVE* reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This central evangelical reference point affirms an original created order and anticipates an eschatological recreation realized ultimately in the Kingdom of God. The way that the universe is determines how man ought to behave himself in it. Finally, O'Donovan reflects on an epistemology of moral order.
A second group of chapters examines the *SUBJECTIVE* realities proclaimed in the gospel. Our moral agency is neither futile or pointless; we are actively enabled to participate in the restoration of moral order by the power of the Holy Spirit. God is actively applying the objective reality of Christ's work in us. This section also explores the nature of authority (natural authority, the authority of truth, political authority, divine authority, Christ's authority) as well as deontic & theological language. The last chapter unpacks how human freedom consists in the power to act as individual believers, as well as corporately in the Church.
The rigorous foundations laid in the prior two sections enable an extended crescendo in Part Three: The Form of the Moral Life. Here the book really hits its stride giving a beatific account of love, which Saint Paul tells us binds everything together in perfect harmony. At the climax we understand why love can only be intelligibly grouped with faith and hope, and thus how morality is related to an evangelical salvation. O'Donovan's genius is accomplishing this without leaving us staring at a dissected corpse, without falling into legalism or antinomianism.
Few books I've finished were as challenging to digest as RMO. Each paragraph is dense and assumes the reader has fluid competency with several classical disciplines. Much like rolling a large stone downhill, the initial lifting in each chapter is straining, often exhausting work. [Aside: Not a huge fan of putting discursive material in smaller type!] Gratefully, as I would gain momentum the arguments were easier to follow. HSAT, I'd need to read this several times to imbibe even a fraction of its wisdom.
A second group of chapters examines the *SUBJECTIVE* realities proclaimed in the gospel. Our moral agency is neither futile or pointless; we are actively enabled to participate in the restoration of moral order by the power of the Holy Spirit. God is actively applying the objective reality of Christ's work in us. This section also explores the nature of authority (natural authority, the authority of truth, political authority, divine authority, Christ's authority) as well as deontic & theological language. The last chapter unpacks how human freedom consists in the power to act as individual believers, as well as corporately in the Church.
The rigorous foundations laid in the prior two sections enable an extended crescendo in Part Three: The Form of the Moral Life. Here the book really hits its stride giving a beatific account of love, which Saint Paul tells us binds everything together in perfect harmony. At the climax we understand why love can only be intelligibly grouped with faith and hope, and thus how morality is related to an evangelical salvation. O'Donovan's genius is accomplishing this without leaving us staring at a dissected corpse, without falling into legalism or antinomianism.
Few books I've finished were as challenging to digest as RMO. Each paragraph is dense and assumes the reader has fluid competency with several classical disciplines. Much like rolling a large stone downhill, the initial lifting in each chapter is straining, often exhausting work. [Aside: Not a huge fan of putting discursive material in smaller type!] Gratefully, as I would gain momentum the arguments were easier to follow. HSAT, I'd need to read this several times to imbibe even a fraction of its wisdom.
May 9, 2014
I rated this book high because it was an important one for me. The moral life of the Church and the Christian is a response to the act of God in Christ through the Spirit.
Morality is man's participation in the created order. Christian morality is his glad response to the deed of God which has restored, proved and fulfilled that order, making man free to conform to it. (p.76)
He helped answer questions I have had for years regarding the connection of salvation and the moral life, skepticism in some Reformed circles regarding the possibility of moral formation and the practice of spiritual disciplines (p.92), developmental vs. crisis orientation to spiritual growth, and many others.
It is a difficult and idiosyncratic read, but the reader is rewarded with many insights and connections.
Morality is man's participation in the created order. Christian morality is his glad response to the deed of God which has restored, proved and fulfilled that order, making man free to conform to it. (p.76)
He helped answer questions I have had for years regarding the connection of salvation and the moral life, skepticism in some Reformed circles regarding the possibility of moral formation and the practice of spiritual disciplines (p.92), developmental vs. crisis orientation to spiritual growth, and many others.
It is a difficult and idiosyncratic read, but the reader is rewarded with many insights and connections.
July 1, 2021
Like "Desire of the Nations," thought-provoking and rewarding. O'Donovan's basic proposal is that moral behavior is only intelligible in light of the created order established by God and vindicated in the resurrection of Christ. Within that larger framework, he sketches the outlines of an evangelical understanding of the work of Christ, the renewal of the moral agent through the Spirit, and the moral order in which we now live in anticipation of the return of Christ. Not a quick read, but well worth the effort.
September 2, 2024
(4.5) Without a doubt one of the most difficult books I’ve read. Incredibly, beautifully rich concepts, but weighed down by unnecessarily dense and unclear writing. It is clear why this is a classic in the field of Christian ethics, but also clear why everyone also warns of its difficulty.
Ultimately, it is very helpful for my own intellectual and moral development, and the focus on the resurrection is just beautiful.
Update: just read the book again for school. I was able to appreciate it much more this time through, although at times it was still unnecessarily wordy.
Ultimately, it is very helpful for my own intellectual and moral development, and the focus on the resurrection is just beautiful.
Update: just read the book again for school. I was able to appreciate it much more this time through, although at times it was still unnecessarily wordy.
February 5, 2018
An odd philosophical rambling written by an Evangelical. Was left disappointed.
The book promised much on such a crucial topic, but he approaches from the wrong direction and proceeds to anoint his own philosophy with a smattering of scripture.
I love his historical works. But this is not the Evangelical ethic you are looking for.
The book promised much on such a crucial topic, but he approaches from the wrong direction and proceeds to anoint his own philosophy with a smattering of scripture.
I love his historical works. But this is not the Evangelical ethic you are looking for.
July 12, 2011
Should be the seminary standard for an evangelical approach to ethics.
October 21, 2019
As with all works of this theological and linguistic complexity (eg. Rowan Williams), it is easier to cling on to the nuggets of gold that have been panned, rather than sum up a whole seam. Resurrection and Moral Order is a very good book, but it takes a lot of hard reading, pencil marking and re-reading to pick out the reasons for its value. Perhaps the thing that stuck with me most was in the first chapter when O'Donovan speaks of love as being made up of wisdom and delight - wisdom in understanding the order of things and how all is ordered towards God, and therefore love is ordered towards God, and delight in things as-in-themselves and not out of utility or derivative value. This then seems to be the governing hermeneutic throughout the book, particularly in the final chapters when O'Donovan seeks to apply (I use the word advisedly) the theology towards a more practical (I use the word advisedly) understanding of love and a Christian ethic.
The sad thing is that by tomorrow evening I will have forgotten most of the traces of what I learnt and reflected upon.
The sad thing is that by tomorrow evening I will have forgotten most of the traces of what I learnt and reflected upon.
August 21, 2019
A classic I will most certainly be returning to. O’Donovan attempts to articulate a theory of ethics that flows from the evangelical proclamation; that is, he is doing *Christian* ethics. He starts from the premise that the resurrection vindicates the created order, and the evangelical message consummates and crowns creation. The book has three major parts: the objective reality, subjective reality, and the moral field. I found the book most helpful for its recurring spars with voluntarism sprinkled throughout.
October 24, 2019
I was so excited about the title of this book, but frankly, I didn't understand half of what the guy was talking about. I think this is the kind of book that, to really get the value out of it, you have to read ever sentence 3 times really slowly and do research after reading every page. I just didn't have the 200 hours to devote to reading it properly, so what I got out of it was limited.
June 30, 2024
However much our moral decisions strive for clarity, they are never unambiguous or translucent, even to ourselves. But -- and is his not the gospel at the heart of evangelical ethics? -- it is given to them by God's grace in Christ to add up to a final and unambiguous Yes, a work of love which will abide for eternity.
January 31, 2025
Hard book to rate. Kind of felt like pouring out an incredible cake batter into a pan, going to lick the rest, and then realising there are no spatulas in the house to scrape it out. Or in other words: I think the framework is basically right, but will need to return again and again to figure out the rest.
November 20, 2019
was informed in a seminar that the french translators encountered titling difficulties, as ‘moral order’ in french has strong far-right resonance, for probably obvious reasons. so instead they renamed it resurrection et experience morale, which is deeply funny, to me
March 26, 2023
This was great, but also extremely difficult. It was chapter 5 before I understood what the author was saying because my exposure to philosophical ethics is so poor. I was completely out of my depth for the majority of this book, but the way the author brings it around was very well done.
July 31, 2017
Dense, and not very accessible for most readers, but a very solid treatment and foundation for evangelical ethics.
August 22, 2018
I didn’t understand most of it but what I understood I liked.
June 3, 2019
A foundational text in Christian ethics.
September 21, 2019
Theologically noteworthy, but ultimately hampered by being almost unreadable.
January 5, 2020
Difficult and idiosyncratic but a noteworthy theological text.
February 22, 2022
Solid book on the Christian understanding of ethics. It is not an easy read though, and it is difficult to digest.
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