The Law of God: The Philosophical History of an Idea

What makes a law ""divine""? What characteristics does that divinity confer on the law? How can we describe societies in which human behavior is regulated by laws characterized as divine? Why has modernity abandoned the premodern notion of divine law as the foundation of social practice? Brague, who teaches philosophy at the Sorbonne and the University of Munich, addresses these and other questions in a book that is unfortunately bogged down in pedestrian prose and pedantic style. He explores the idea of divine law and its regulation of society as it developed in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Israel and functioned as a component of Christianity and Islam at least through the Middle Ages. By the time of the Enlightenment, however, the law had been torn away from divinity and become a function of the secular state. Modern society thought of law as simply a human instrument rather than a divine mandate. Though the topic is potentially fruitful, Brague adds little new or startling to the discussion of divine law. Through his chronological exploration of the devolution from divine law to human law, he tells a story about religion and society that is already well known.