The role of natural law in Reformed Protestantism has been a topic of considerable debate since the twentieth century. As early as the debate between Karl Barth and Emil Brunner in 1934, two competing views on natural law emerged: the classical view, which claims continuity with early Protestant orthodoxy and promotes a robust place for natural law in Reformed ethics, and the critical view—associated especially with Karl Barth, Cornelius Van Til, and their students—which highlights the noetic effects of sin and the necessity and sufficiency of Scripture for ethics.
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