Divine Command Theory

The Religious Communities Framework

The Religious Communities framework of the DCT posits that God's commands, and only God's commands, define what is morally right and morally wrong. However, this version of the DCT requires that only members of DCT-adhering religious communities are required to interpret and then abide by the commands of God. For instance, certain Christian denominations view the appointment of females in ministry to be contrary to God's commands and, therefore, morally wrong, while other Christian denominations do not interpret God's commands in such a manner and consequently appoint females to ministry positions. Interestingly, many adherents of the Judeo-Christian tradition fall outside of this Religious Communities version of the DCT because they view God's commands as only a partial source of their ethical responsibilities. For example, a Christian might believe that loving a neighbor is morally good even without a corresponding commandment issued by God. This framework acknowledges that the DCT is meaningless to a nonbeliever as one cannot be forced to abide by God's commands without a corresponding belief in a supreme deity. Finally, the Religious Communities framework accepts the idea that groups outside the religious community define morality independent of God's commands and that these interpretations of morality might significantly differ from the interpretations of the religious community.

The Command as Motivation Framework

The Command as Motivation framework of the DCT claims that certain actions are moral independent of any divine command but that God's commands provide people with the necessary and proper motivation to act morally. Therefore, like the Religious Communities framework, the Command as Motivation framework only applies to individuals who sincerely believe in God and are, therefore, motivated to follow God's commands. For example, honesty is a practice explicitly commanded by God in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Assume that an atheist is presented with an opportunity to lie and chooses instead to act honestly. In this instance, the atheist's decision to act honestly is a moral decision—because honesty is moral independent of God's commands—but the honest action in this instance is viewed as coincidence because the [Page 613]atheist will not have the divine motivation required to consistently act honestly. This version of the DCT places God as the motivating force behind ethical actions but relinquishes the idea that moral actions depend on God's will.

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