There are three broad categories of ethical philosophies. The first is the theological theories. As the name tells you, these are moral philosophies that begin with the idea that what is right and wrong derive from God or some other higher power.

The simplest theological theory is the divine command theory. This theory says that God has revealed his will in the form of commands that are made available to us through oral tradition, holy scripture, or church law. All we need to do to be good is to follow those commands. Most of the church fathers held such a belief, as do most religious people today. Its major advantage is its simplicity and solidity.

A more complex theological theory is called natural law. This goes back to St. Thomas Aquinas, and is a part of traditional Catholic philosophy. St. Thomas felt that God would not give us one set of rules through scripture and the church only to have them contradicted by our experiences and reason. Nature, as God’s creation, is in complete agreement with his moral commands. People who believe in natural law would point out that there are people from other cultures, not exposed to our traditions of morality, who nonetheless reason their way to the very same conclusions as to what is right and wrong!

The difficulty with natural law has become obvious: Science does occasionally produce theories that are blatantly contradictory with scripture, and the church does occasionally produce events (religious wars and burning heretics spring to mind) that are blatantly contradictory with our “common sense” sort of morality.

The difficulty with both divine command theory and natural law is that, as society becomes more pluralistic, we come into more and more contact with a greater and greater variety of religious traditions, each with their own scriptures and traditions, and not all of them agreeing all the time. The majority of religious people are good-hearted souls, who are reluctant to believe that God would condemn entire nations for not having been lucky enough to hear the right message! This feeling is especially poignant when people gain experiences with very decent people with different religions or even no religion at all. As long as we remain generous and humble, there is no real problem.

But some people find themselves retreating to what some consider a defensive position called absolutism. Absolutism is divine command theory, but without the generous and humble spirit. In other words, it’s my way or else. We have had many examples of absolutism in history, and we have many examples still today.