DOOYEWEERD and the DECALOGUE (with Fearghas MacFhionnlaigh)

 Fearghas,

It’s been a while since I’ve looked at it, but how is the Moral Law, i.e., the Decalogue, expressed in, by, and through the fifteen ground motives of Dooyeweerdism? For example, does “Thou shalt not steal” have any distant connection to the kinematic aspect, or perhaps a far closer connection to the economic aspect? Or “Thou shalt not lie” with the lingual aspect? Or “Thou shalt not covet” with the quantitative aspect? In other words, is there a moral aspect to the fifteen spheres? And, if so, are we to equate moral and spiritual as synonymous in these aspects?

Neil

Neil,

Your question is very good. Not so easy to briefly answer without some introductory general explanation of Dooyeweerd. Anyway, as brief as I can manage for the moment…

Insofar as we refer to the Ten Commandments as “The Moral Law” we are locating them in the Moral or Ethical Aspect of Dooyeweerd’s 15 Aspects (latter also called Modes of Meaning, Modalities of Consciousness, Law-spheres etc [but NOT “ground-motives” which are something else entirely].) Note the Ethical Aspect (second down from top) on my following Chart —

Everything which exists in time ALWAYS functions in ALL the Aspects/ Law-spheres. Please reread that sentence. So the Aspects should be thought of as “structural” laws [eg law of gravity, law of logical contradiction, laws of aesthetics etc] as distinct from directive “commands”. You and I and my iPad and the cat and the squid and the pub and the chocolate bar wrapper and the birthday party and the political party and the TV show and Beethoven’s 5th and the wind which listeth, ALL ALWAYS function by their very existence in ALL the Aspects. 

Christ in his incarnation entered into ALL the aspects (which of course are all “from him, through him, and to him” and all “sustained by his word of power”). Likewise He “reconciled all things on heaven and earth by the blood of his cross” and in his resurrection was the “first fruits of the new creation”. 

As a rough rule of thumb we can note that the traditional faculty disciplines in universities match by and large Dooyeweerd’s 15 Aspects. And each faculty is at pains (or used to be at pains) to establish the lines of demarcation between itself and adjacent departments. This was an implicit recognition that the structures of reality were being carefully (“scientifically”) and discretely identified. But more than that, there is/ was a recognition that the faculties were “mutually irreducible”. Dooyeweerd calls the latter “sphere-sovereignty “. However, not to get too tricky here, there is also a “sphere-universality” whereby in full integral CONCRETE REALITY no aspect can exist in its discrete theoretically abstract (inside-the-heid) state, but only in simultaneous coherence with all the other aspects. This “sphere-universality” is what at first sight lends a certain plausibility to all idolatrous “isms” such as “rationalism” (being an absolutisation of the Analytical/ Logical Aspect, or in other words implying that all other aspects are merely a product of Logic.)

The Scriptures also, as an incarnation of the Word/ Logos, function in ALL Aspects.  So although we may correctly see the Decalogue as anchored in the “Moral”/ “Ethical” Aspect or Law-sphere, it is nonetheless fully integrated with, and manifests analogies simultaneously in, all other Aspects. The bottom foundational Aspect is “Numerical” (in this case “10”). It is formulated in words (Lingual Aspect), and as commands which incur judgement if disobeyed (Juridical/ Legal Aspect). The Psalmist calls the Law of the Lord “beautiful” (Aesthetic Aspect). “More precious than silver or gold” (Economic Aspect). We recognise and obey its authority by “faith” (Pistical Aspect [top of chart list]). It has societal implications (Social Aspect). The Decalogue was delivered at Sinai (Historical Aspect). Written on stone/ parchment/ paper/ computer screen (Physical Energy Aspect). And so on. 

Ecclesiates tells us that God “has put eternity in our hearts”.  When Christ was asked what is the greatest law, he of course answered “Love the Lord your God with all your HEART”. That is the fulfillment of all the moral commands of the Decalogue. It is also the fulfillment of all the structural laws of temporal reality, for “without him was not anything made which was made”. 

So Dooyeweerd notes this Scriptural identification of our “heart” as the selfhood’s innermost (“supratemporal”, “time-transcending”) concentration point where all of experienced reality (“whether we eat or drink”) is directed in love and obedience and sacrifice to the Eternal Lord (or in apostasy is directed to a reductionist time-bound idol, ie an absolutisation of a single temporal Aspect or combination of Aspects). 

It should be noted here that, to avoid a reductionism of all of reality to the Ethical Aspect, Dooyeweerd carefully differentiates the manifestation of “love” in the sense of that temporal Law-sphere from the comprehensive ALL-law-fulfilling supratemporal “Love” via which in our “hearts” we ascribe the glory of entire reality to the eternal God.

Anyone still reading is greatly commended! Enough already. Here in closing then, if stamina remains, is a quote from Dooyeweerd:

“We have already referred to one of CALVIN’s statements that occurs several times in his writings: ‘Deus legibus solutus est’ (‘God is not bound to the Law’). This statement necessarily implies that all of the creation is subject to the Law. Christ has freed us from the ‘law of sin’ and from the Jewish ceremonial law. But the cosmic law, in its religious [ie ultimate] fulness and temporal diversity of meaning, is not a burdensome yoke imposed upon us because of sin, but it is a blessing in Christ. Without its determination and limitation, the subject would sink away into chaos. Therefore, Calvin recognized the intrinsic subjection of the Christian to the decalogue, and did not see any intrinsic antinomy between the central commandment of love as the religious root of God’s ordinances, and the juridical or economic law-spheres, or the inner structural law of the state. Anabaptists lost sight of the religious root of the temporal laws, and consequently placed the Sermon on the Mount, with its doctrine of love, in opposition to civil ordinances. CALVIN strongly opposed this error. He proceeded from the radical religious unity of all temporal divine regulations and could therefore radically combat each absolutization of a temporal aspect of the full Law of God, as well as every spiritualistic revolution against the state and its legal order: 

‘Christ has not received the mandate to loosen or to unbind the Law, but rather to restore the true and pure understanding of its commands which had been badly deformed by the false devices of the Scribes and the Pharisees.’” [Inst. II, 8, 26.]

(Herman Dooyeweerd, A New Critique of Theoretical Thought Vol 1, p 518) 

Fergie.

Gobha-uisge ri Plubraich | Mouse in a Glass: Luch sa Ghlainne | Muc aig an Doras | The Cosmic-Root Christian Philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd | Deep Calls to Deep: Adolph Saphir and Herman Dooyeweerd | Zen and the Art of Calvinist Epistemology | Midge/Meanbhchuileag | RÉAMHRÁ