The Divine Lawmaker

John Foster's "The Divine Lawmaker" presents a sophisticated defense of divine command theory within contemporary moral philosophy. The monograph argues that objective moral facts require grounding in God's sovereign will, positioning itself against both secular moral realism and alternative theistic accounts of ethics. Foster develops a distinctive version of divine command theory that attempts to navigate traditional objections while maintaining the essential dependence of morality on divine legislation.

The work engages primarily with two philosophical camps. Against secular moral realists like David Brink and Russ Shafer-Landau, Foster contends that objective moral facts cannot exist as brute features of reality without divine grounding. He argues that the normative force of moral obligations requires a personal source of authority, which only God can provide. Against fellow theistic ethicists who ground morality in divine nature rather than divine commands, Foster maintains that God's will, not merely God's character, constitutes the foundation of moral obligation.

Foster's analytical methodology involves careful conceptual distinctions between different types of moral properties and their metaphysical requirements. He argues that while certain evaluative properties might exist independently, deontic properties—particularly moral obligations—necessarily depend on divine commands. This position allows him to acknowledge moral intuitions about goodness while maintaining that binding moral duties require divine legislation. The work addresses the Euthyphro dilemma by arguing that God's commands flow from divine wisdom and goodness without being constrained by independent moral standards.

The monograph's significance lies in its rigorous analytical treatment of divine command theory, offering new responses to classical objections. Foster provides a nuanced account of how divine commands generate genuine obligations without reducing morality to arbitrary divine fiat. His work contributes to broader debates about moral ontology by arguing that theism offers superior explanatory resources for accounting for morality's distinctive features, particularly its categorical and overriding nature.

Foster's argument represents a notable intervention in contemporary metaethics, demonstrating how traditional Christian commitments about God's relationship to morality can be defended using the tools of analytical philosophy. The work challenges both religious and secular philosophers to reconsider the metaphysical foundations required for objective moral obligation, making a case that such obligations ultimately require a divine lawmaker.