Terminology Tuesday: Natural Law

Natural Law: Moral principles supposed to govern human behavior that can be recognized independently of special revelation. Advocates of natural law typically think that at least the basic principles of natural law are knowable by all people and thus can be said to be "written on the heart." The natural law tradition links morality to the "natures" things possess and the purposes of those natures. Theists think of natural laws as literal laws promulgated by God, though some naturalists who believe in natural laws use the term metaphorically.1

1. C.Stephen Evans, Pocket Dictionary of Apologetics & Philosophy of Religion (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), p. 78.

See last year's great apologetics audio lectures by Ronald Nash.