I'm seeking to understand Christian moral epistemology

Question

Specifically, I'm interested in works (articles, books, etc.) explicating the philosophical dimensions and implications of the idea that the law is written upon our hearts. That seems to me to suggest a certain kind of epistemology, and I would greatly appreciate resources that would help me learn more about it. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

There is not a lot of books related to this topic but it is commonly found in any textbook style ‘systematic theology’. The topic is around our knowledge of God, what we can know naturally about God, what we can only know through revelation, and what we can only know through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, opening up that revelation from his word.

What you are referring to here is specifically the ‘innate knowledge’ that all mankind has of God.

For example it is treated by Charles Hodge in his systematic theology.

It cannot be doubted that there is such knowledge, i.e., that the soul is so constituted that it sees certain things to be true immediately in their own light. They need no proof.

Hodge, C. (1997). Systematic theology (Vol. 1, p. 191). Logos Research Systems, Inc.

In general, it is commonly understood that the existence of God, and his general nature such as omnipotence, all knowing, all wise, holy, perfect in judgment, just, good, etc. can be known generally by all mankind, though with many flaws due to sin.

However, all the mystical revelation such as the trinity, the incarnation, the plan of redemption through the God-Man, etc. these can’t be known through innate knowledge, or through reason, or from research and study, but only by God revealing these truth to the eye of faith by his Spirit.

The knowledge of his moral laws, though a knowledge that can be greatly damaged and broken, at some level is admitted by all mankind and summarized in the Ten Commandments. Of course this knowledge to some degree can be denied and so is not exactly as innate as the idea that 1 + 1 = 2, but it is sufficiently understood that this denial does not occur without guilt. This all men know because all men have a conscience and all men know they have broken it.

It is a partly an overlapping area, both innate and not innate, regarding the ‘guilt of transgression’ from this law in our hearts. The fact that guilt is a common experience proves to some extent all men know they have disobeyed their innate knowledge of God but the degree of that disobedience and the severity of the punishment due, that of an eternal unmerciful punishment, under the strictness of God’s law, is not fully revealed until witnessed in the death of Christ. Furthermore, it is the experience of many (if not all who become Christians as adults), that it is this ‘terror of the conscience’ and heartfelt feeling of deserved eternal condemnation that first causes a soul to flee to faith in the gospel. One may argue then, that it is common by special revelation that the Holy Spirit discloses to a sinner the true nature of conscience and law when first becoming a Christian. In other words, the true understanding of the law is a presupposition to the recognition of the need for repentance from self towards faith in the gospel. Our knowledge of our transgression of innate conscience when fully aroused by the Spirit in repentance and conversion means fully denying ourselves, especially denying that we are capable of following conscience. This is why faith must precede all genuine repentance as an escape from our complete failure to live by our own innate understanding of right and wrong. This special knowledge of the depths of God’s Law, its strict severity and absolute inability to satisfy it by anything we can ever do, even with God’s help, is not fully innate but revealed to us in the gospel. By this means understanding the curse of a broken conscience and damning guilt, is one of the greatest blessings one can receive by God, for it leads to the complete destruction of self-righteousness and consequently a straight and narrow path to receive the eternal life of Christ, as the most supreme gift ever from of our creator.