Promises’ Limits, Covenant’s Promise
-
Toni Alimi
Abstract
The Bible sometimes presents divine covenants as involving a promise. This gives us reasons to study promises as a way of generating a clearer understanding of these sorts of divine covenants. This paper argues for a set of features an ideal promise must have and argues that only something like a divine covenant could have all such features. Understanding some divine covenants as involving a promise helps explain how the human partners in the divine covenant can be entitled to demand and expect God to be faithful to his covenants. It also rules out certain models for divine covenants. This paper’s method suggests avenues for analyzing different types of divine speech as idealized versions of ordinary social practices.
Zusammenfassung
In der Bibel werden göttliche Bündnisse zuweilen als Versprechen dargestellt. Aus diesem Grund ist es sinnvoll, Versprechen zu untersuchen, um ein besseres Verständnis göttlicher Bündnisse dieser Art zu gewinnen. Dieser Aufsatz argumentiert für eine Reihe von Eigenschaften, die ein ideales Versprechen haben muss, und zeigt, dass nur ein göttlicher Bund alle diese Eigenschaften besitzen kann. Das Verständnis bestimmter göttlicher Bündnisse als Versprechen trägt dazu bei, zu erklären, wie die menschlichen Partner eines göttlichen Bundes berechtigt sein können, von Gott Treue zu seinen Bündnissen zu fordern und zu erwarten. Dadurch schließt der Aufsatz bestimmte Erklärungsmodelle göttlicher Bündnisse aus. Außerdem zeigt die in diesem Aufsatz verfolgte Methodik Wege auf, verschiedene Arten göttlicher Rede als idealisierte Formen herkömmlicher sozialer Praktiken zu verstehen.
Bibliography
Adams, Robert Merrihew. “A Modified Divine Command Theory of Ethical Wrongness.” In The Virtue of Faith and Other Essays in Philosophical Theology, edited by Robert M. Adams, 97–123. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.Suche in Google Scholar
Adams, Robert Merrihew. Finite and infinite goods: A framework for ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Suche in Google Scholar
Alimi, Toni. “Covenants and Commands.” Journal of Religious Ethics, 48, no. 3 (2020): 498–518.10.1111/jore.12319Suche in Google Scholar
Alston, William. “Some Suggestions for Divine Command Theorists.” In Christian Theism and the Problems of Philosophy, edited by Michael D. Beaty, 303–326. South Bend, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990.Suche in Google Scholar
Atiyah, Patrick Selim. Promises, morals, and law. Oxford University Press, 1981.Suche in Google Scholar
Gilbert, Margaret. “Is an agreement an exchange of promises?” The Journal of Philosophy 90, no. 12 (1993): 627–649.10.2307/2940815Suche in Google Scholar
Habib, Allen. “Promises to the Self.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 39, no. 4 (2009): 537–558.10.1353/cjp.0.0061Suche in Google Scholar
Hare, John E. God’s command. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.Suche in Google Scholar
Kukla, Rebecca, and Mark Lance. ‘Yo!’and ‘Lo!’: The pragmatic topography of the space of reasons. Harvard University Press, 2009.10.4159/9780674274396Suche in Google Scholar
Geach, Peter T. “Omnipotence.” Philosophy 48, no. 183 (1973): 7–20. 10.1017/S0031819100060381Suche in Google Scholar
Murphy, Mark C. God’s Own Ethics: Norms of divine agency and the argument from evil. Oxford University Press, 2017.Suche in Google Scholar
Pettit, Philip. “Freedom as antipower.” Ethics 106, no. 3 (1996): 576–604. 10.1086/233648Suche in Google Scholar
Raz, Joseph. “Promises and Obligations.” In Law, Morality, and Society: Essays in Honour of H. L. A. Hart, edited by P. M. S. Hacker and Joseph Raz, 210–228. Oxford: Clarendon, 1977.Suche in Google Scholar
Scanlon, Thomas. “Promises and practices.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 19, no. 3 (1990): 199–226.Suche in Google Scholar
Speaks, Jeff. The Greatest Possible Being. Oxford University Press, 2018.10.1093/oso/9780198826811.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Torrance, James B. “Covenant or contract? A study of the theological background of worship in seventeenth-century Scotland.” Scottish Journal of Theology 23, no. 1 (1970): 51–76.10.1017/S0036930600021062Suche in Google Scholar
Wolterstorff, Nicholas. Divine Discourse: Philosophical Reflections on the Claim that God Speaks. Cambridge University Press, 1995.10.1017/CBO9780511598074Suche in Google Scholar
Wolterstorff, Nicholas. Justice: Rights and Wrongs. Princeton University Press, 2008. 10.1515/9781400828715Suche in Google Scholar
© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
