Abstract

The tension between the attempt to base morality on God's will, on the one hand, and God's reason, on the other, runs deep throughout the history of Christian theology. This essay explores Kierkegaard and Aquinas as representatives of the voluntarist and rationalist traditions, respectively, employing their treatment of the Abraham story as a key interpretive tool. These theologians are compared concerning the basis of morality, how God's will is known, and whether there are limits to what God commands. I propose that one way of understanding what is at stake for these theologians is to ask: Can believers affirm a conception of God who both acts and is worthy of worship? Both Kierkegaard and Aquinas aver that God is totally free and eminently holy, though in ways that give their moral systems different shapes and leave theological ethicists facing important choices between voluntarism and rationalism.