Divine Law

Abstract

This article deals with the question of how the notion of divine law was defined in medieval philosophy by exploring the thought of a number of prominent thinkers in the Jewish, Islamic, and Christian philosophical traditions – Judah Halevi, al-Fārābī, Maimonides, and Thomas Aquinas. All these thinkers were acquainted with the Platonic–Aristotelian tradition that laid much of the basis for medieval political philosophy and they all grappled with this tradition in formulating their approaches. Moreover, many played a prominent role within their religious community. For them the problem of divine law was not simply an interesting theoretical question but a problem that lay at the heart of their particular religious commitment. They saw their task not only as defining the characteristics of divine law but as defending the divine nature of their own religion. The article concludes with the seventeenth century philosopher Spinoza and explores the relation between his approach and the approaches of his medieval predecessors.