ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the two main questions of the chapter by David VanDrunen, “The Relationship of Virtue and Divine Law.” The chapter addresses two questions on the basis of Petrus van Mastricht’s Theoretico-Practica Theologia: the relationship between virtue and revealed divine law and how this relationship connects to law as a moral order.
Petrus van Mastricht connects the virtues to the Decalogue, which he takes as an abridgment of the virtues. Hence, he elaborates on which virtues and opposed vices are comprehended in each of the commandments. He uses the key-term ‘officium’ (duty) to explain the interconnectedness between law and virtue, wherein duty is guided by both law and virtue.
For his interpretation of the relationship between the Decalogue as divine law and a universal moral order, Van Mastricht points at God’s own nature. God’s nature is connected to the highest good and the eternal law, revealed in the Decalogue. Subsequently, the commandment is not only good because God wills it, but because it flows from God’s nature. In the relationship between law, virtue, and duty, virtue balances internal and external change, and brings room for gradual growth, in which both the cultivation of love and obedience have their place.
