By Mitchell D. Cochran
Christian counseling and philosophical ethics may seem to be disparate disciplines to both the average counselor and to the average theologian or philosopher. When mental health workers talk about ethics, they are usually discussing the professional ethical codes put forth by the American Counseling Association, the American Psychological Association, or a similar group. However, as important as ethical codes are, Christian counselors and soul care practitioners must have a transcendent ethic both to guide them in practice and to guide counselees in life. Counseling is an inherently ethical task. Counseling seeks to help counselees live happy and good lives. Such goodness necessarily entails the ethical as far as Christians (and many others) are concerned. Theologically inclined counselors may rightly point us in the direction of the Holy Scriptures for ethical guidance. However, ethics come from both general and special revelation. Both sources of revelation ought to be respected. To respect what general revelation has to say about the ethical realm, Christian counselors need to retrieve the natural law ethical framework. Natural law ethics can aid counselors and the counseling process without reducing the ethical to mere moralism. This may be especially the case in situations when the explicitly spiritual realm is hard to access for whatever reason. This first post provides a brief definition of natural law. A future post will posit some practical therapeutic benefits of incorporating natural law ethics into Christian counseling.
Natural Law Defined
Simply put, natural law is the moral law of God revealed in creation and rooted in creation’s purpose. The four key characteristics of natural law are that natural law is metaphysical, teleological, dispositional, and knowable. First, natural law is premised on the idea that metaphysics (the nature of reality) must logically precede ethics (how one ought to act in reality). One must know what reality is before one discerns how to act in it. The law is called “natural” because it is rooted in nature. Nature does not refer to trees, mountains, and rivers but to the entire “created order,” which includes mankind and his faculties.
Also included in the definition of “nature” is the purpose for which created things, especially man, are made. Because creation has a Creator, creation is meaningful. Because creation is meaningful, it is teleological and goal-oriented. Thus, human nature is viewed as crucial data for ethical reasoning. For example, Aristotle famously said that man is by nature a “political animal.” That is, man naturally forms societies, clans, and political units. Therefore, in natural law theory, it is wrong to act in a way that ignores, destabilizes, or destroys the social fabric precisely because man’s nature is social and political.
Because all of man’s faculties have a telos or goal, there is nothing meaningless or purposeless about man’s composition. Therefore, the moral life is more than merely performing the correct act without reference to the inner life. Classical natural law demands the formation of inner dispositions towards the upholding of the law. These positive dispositions are called virtues. A moral virtue is a habit of the soul formed by the mind and will guiding the lower functions of the soul which may be roughly categorized as the passions or the emotions. The mind-will axis shepherds the emotions and rules them democratically rather than dictatorially. The moral life, including the natural law, is for the whole man. Therefore, the higher faculties of man must direct the lower faculties of man. Virtue is attained as the lower faculties of man build the ethical muscle to habitually desire and take pleasure in fulfilling the law.
Natural law is to some extent knowable to most, if not all, humans. Humans perceive the natural law through sense experience, reason, and conscience. However, as natural law comes from the created order rather than from a pre-propositionalized moral code (such as Scripture) humans must take the extra step of formatting the general revelation of natural law into propositional content.
In summary, the natural law encompasses the whole person and is available to all people. The natural law properly followed brings humans happiness and fulfillment. Natural law implies purpose and meaning in creation and individual lives. With work, natural law is knowable and useable for the majority of people. If natural law really does exist, it has immediate application to counseling and soul care in as much as counselors seek to help counselees live happy and virtuous lives full of meaning and purpose. Part two of this discussion will examen some potential therapeutic applications of natural law for Christian counselors to consider when working with both Christian and non-Christian clients.
Mitchell is a Christian counselor who works in a public middle school as a behavior interventionist. Mitchell also serves as a rural lay minister in Northwest Colorado. He lives with his wife, Katherine. He and Katherine are expecting their first child in 2026.
