A friend of mine asks the following:
Do you know of any good philosophical treatments of biblical ethics, specifically discussions of God's justice as illustrated in Old Testament stories like the flood, the book of Job, the plagues on Egypt, etc. and with respect to the death and resurrection of Christ in the NT? What I'm looking for is criticisms/defenses/analyses of the justice of God's actions. None of the intro philosophy of religion books I've gone over really get into these issues, save for a passing remark in one that didn't even cite any literature.
Any suggestions?
Update: To clarify, my friend is looking for a book-length treatment, preferably one with a decent bibliography. Is there anything like this?
If you wouldn't mind, when you get a response would you post it here (if perhaps the response comes from email or another non-comment source).
_Show Them No Mercy: 4 Views on God and Canaanite Genocide_ is one book that comes to mind. I haven't read much yet, so I can't comment on its quality. But it is worth looking at. As the title suggests, it is not a comprehensive treatment of God's justice, but rather an exploration of how to understanding God's justice relative to the Canaanite genocide.
Of course this issue was a staple of patristic and medieval discussion. Aquinas certainly has a discussion in the S.Th.
There is also a good discussion of the epistemological issues in divine commands to kill in one of St. Thomas More's dialogues that he wrote while in the Tower.
Jeremy - it sounds like your friend has a great idea for a book!
I don't think there exists any book-length treatment of JUST the issue of God's justice in His actions. At the end of his "Old Testament Ethics for the People of God" (written in 2004), OT scholar Christopher Wright says he thinks a book dealing with that specific topic - God's actions and commands considered to be morally problematic - needs to be written, and he suggests that he might write it. But it hasn't appeared yet.
However, I have read some books and resources that might help with some of the topics you seem to have in mind...
John Wenham's "The Enigma of Evil: Can We Believe in the Goodness of God?" (revised ed 1993) covers hell, OT ethics and evil in the world in general. The perspecive is perhaps more Biblical than philosophical (Wenham was a Biblical scholar) but good for understanding how to read the text correctly, and it is at least a bit philosophical. A good read.
Walter Kaiser's "Toward Old Testament Ethics" contains a lengthy section dealing with actions and commands of God in the OT that many have considered to be morally problematic. Kaiser is an OT scholar.
If you are interested in reading some stimulating stuff on those topics that is within easy reach, there are some good online essays at:
www.christian-thinktank.com
They are listed under "common objections". Although the author isn't a scholar, he's a sharp guy and he's read a lot by those who are, and quotes a lot. He treats the Egyptain plagues and the conquest of Canaan (well worth reading), and I think he treats the other issues you mentioned. I think he is more clued up on the conquest than the contributors to "Show Them No Mercy" are. I think his discussion counts as "philosophical". So I would check that out. And you could always email him for advice on sources.
I'm aware of stuff from biblical theologians and scholars. Peter Craigie's The Problem of War in the Old Testament is good, and I'm a huge fan of D.A. Carson's How Long, O Lord?, which is more general on the problem of evil but includes several discussions of this problem. I'm sure Wright's work on OT ethics deals with this to some degree, at least when it comes to human obedience to God's commands to do things many today would consider atrocities.
But is there anything by a philosopher (at least a recent one; Aquinas and Augustine deal with this stuff at length)?
Any chance you'd save a lazy man some looking and give the Augustine and Aquinas references?
One person's modus ponens is another's modus tollens, but I think that if I were Christian, I'd probably take the stories on the Canaanite genocide as excellent evidence that the book of Joshua isn't historically accurate, and then try to figure out what to make of Joshua and its genre, the ways in which the Bible is inspired and true, etc., if that's the case, rather than taking the stories as excellent evidence that God sometimes orders genocide and then trying to figure out how and why it's just for God to do so.
You'd have to ask Alex if you want a more specific location in the S.T. of Aquinas, since he mentioned it. I haven't read that section myself. Augustine discusses these general issues in several places throughout City of God, but I don't have a comprehensive list of which sections. I know he defends God's justice on several of these matters in various places.
Aquinas' discussion is characterized by great brevity.
STh II-II, 64, 6:
Whether it is lawful to kill the innocent?
Objection 1. It would seem that in some cases it is lawful to kill the innocent. The fear of God is never manifested by sin, since on the contrary "the fear of the Lord driveth out sin" (Sirach 1:27). Now Abraham was commended in that he feared the Lord, since he was willing to slay his innocent son. Therefore one may, without sin, kill an innocent person.
...
Response: God is Lord of death and life, for by His decree both the sinful and the righteous die. Hence he who at God's command kills an innocent man does not sin, as neither does God Whose behest he executes: indeed his obedience to God's commands is a proof that he fears Him.