Abstract

The growing body of commentary on Paul Ramsey's Christian ethics has overlooked the importance Ramsey attached to the Anglo-American Common Law tradition, both as a source of moral norms and as a model for the Christian ethicist's professional role. In this dissertation, I explore the place of the common law in Ramsey's ethics in two ways. ;First, I identify the various ways in which Ramsey's readings or other contacts with the common law tradition specifically influenced his ethics. Starting with a close analysis of Ramsey's first book, Basic Christian Ethics, I show how Ramsey moved from a traditional Protestant antinomianism to a more profound appreciation for law. Ramsey's appreciation for law, however, does not take the form of a turn to natural law theory . Instead, Ramsey's work from the mid-1950s on shows a constant attraction to the common law's method of practical reason "in the prismatic case," where norms are gradually developed through a series of particular judgments. ;Second, I show how a deeper understanding of the common law can illuminate Ramsey's ethics even beyond the area of specific influences. Ramsey's attraction to the common law reflects his deep uncertainty about the vocation of Christian ethics, and he finds in the lawyer an image of a professional counselor. The counselor's advice deserves respect because of the counselor's special expertise. For Ramsey, the lawyer and the Christian ethicist share a common form of expertise, a professional command of the moral and legal principles that establish boundaries for individual or collective judgments. ;Attention to the place of the common law in Ramsey's thought clarifies both the promise and the poverty of Ramsey's covenant theology. On one hand, his idea of covenant emphasizes the basic protections that are preconditions for human flourishing. For Ramsey, principled conduct is morally prior to beneficial results. On the other hand, Ramsey's exclusive attention to principles leaves his accounts of the divine-human covenant and the Christian moral life seriously impoverished. His extreme deference to individual decision within the boundaries established by principles deprives Ramsey of both a coherent account of justice and a meaningful understanding of sanctification.