God and Morality: A Philosophical History

This monograph traces the complex philosophical relationship between divine command theory and moral philosophy from ancient Greece through contemporary debates. Hare examines how Western thinkers have grappled with whether morality depends on God's existence and will, offering both historical exposition and philosophical analysis of this enduring question.

The work begins with pre-Christian philosophy, analyzing how Plato's Euthyphro dilemma established the fundamental tension between divine sovereignty and moral objectivity. Hare demonstrates how medieval scholastics, particularly Aquinas and Scotus, attempted various syntheses between Aristotelian virtue ethics and Christian theology. The treatment of voluntarist positions shows how divine command theory evolved to address concerns about arbitrariness while maintaining God's ultimate authority over moral law.

Moving through the modern period, Hare examines how Enlightenment thinkers increasingly separated ethics from theology. He analyzes Kant's attempt to ground morality in practical reason while preserving a role for God as the guarantor of the highest good. The discussion reveals how even secular moral philosophers often relied on quasi-religious assumptions about human dignity and moral obligation. Hare particularly emphasizes how the rejection of divine foundations created new philosophical problems regarding moral motivation and the binding nature of ethical demands.

The contemporary sections engage recent revivals of divine command theory, especially Robert Adams's modified version that grounds morality in God's necessarily loving nature. Hare evaluates naturalistic alternatives from evolutionary ethics and moral realism, arguing that they face significant challenges in explaining moral normativity and obligation. He contends that theistic ethics better accounts for the categorical nature of moral requirements and the human capacity for moral transformation.

Throughout, Hare employs careful conceptual analysis while remaining sensitive to historical context. He avoids simple polemics, acknowledging strengths in various positions while building a cumulative case for the coherence and explanatory power of theistic approaches to ethics. The work serves as both a comprehensive introduction to the history of moral theology and a sophisticated defense of the continuing relevance of God to ethical theory. By showing how debates about divine command theory illuminate broader questions about moral realism, motivation, and normativity, Hare demonstrates that the question of God's relationship to morality remains philosophically vital rather than merely historically interesting.