Date
2-2019
Department
Rawlings School of Divinity
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Theology and Apologetics (PhD)
Chair
Fred Smith
Keywords
Hero Myth, Moral Philosophy, Natural Law
Disciplines
Christianity | Philosophy | Religion
Recommended Citation
Coombe, Matthew J., "Mythology, Morality, and the Messiah: How Natural Moral Law and Hero Myth Entail that Jesus Christ is the Best Possible Hero" (2019). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 1976.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/1976
Abstract
Essentially this dissertation is an abductive argument for Jesus Christ being the best possible hero. The abductive argument is concerned with the synthesis of several different disciplines: natural theology, general revelation, ethics, natural law (meta-ethics), literary criticism, Biblical criticism, and mythology. When synthesized the most reasonable conclusion for the data is that Jesus Christ is the best possible hero. All of the disciplines work together: Natural theology establishes the axiological basis for moral realism and moral knowledge. General revelation acts as a universal imprinter, which not only imbeds man with moral knowledge, but also with inherent notions of heroism—heroism and the monomyth are examples of natural revelation. Natural law, via moral philosophy, determines if the prescriptions of an ethical system, as well as a hero’s code of conduct, properly correspond to the prescriptions inherent to their relative reductions. Literary criticism also aids in evaluating heroes and heroism. Jesus is the true myth and the best possible hero, He is the figure described in general revelation via the monomyth, and His exploits of heroism are revealed in the Scriptures.
