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Intellectualism and voluntarism both arise from the same theological error: from the assumption that there is some realm that is independent and autonomous. This is most obvious with intellectualism: For intellectualists, things have indepdendent value that God recognizes and evaluates. Voluntarists are, however, making the same error. They assume that X has the value it does only because God has imputed value to it (king and the lead coin is the classic illustration). But this still assumes that X (the lead coin) has a value (a low one) in itself, but that the king "raises" the value by accepting the lead coin as gold; similarly, they assume that good works have merit (though only little) in themselves, but that God raises the value by accepting them. This is another reason why the intellectualist-voluntarist debate was a poorly framed one (since it was an intramural debate within the same nature-grace dualism). And it also points to the deep problems with any notion of merit, including the Reformed notion of a meritorious covenant of works.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, November 06, 2003 at 02:07 PM
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