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Mr Nathaniel Warne
Biography
I received a Bachelors of Science in Art (painting and drawing) and minored in Biblical Studies at Biola University. I continued my education by receiving a Masters of Arts from Talbot School of Theology in moral and historical theology. I wrote my masters thesis on 16th century Geneva and its political influence on John Locke. I was also a minister at Grace Evangelical Free Church, La Mirada before moving to Durham. Some hobbies of mine are playing and listening to music of all sorts, cooking, reading old and new novels and watching films.
Current Research
Thesis Abstract:
My current PhD research is on the relationship between theological ethics and the doctrine of divine calling. In my thesis I argue that 16th and 17th century English Puritans continued within the eudaimonistic tradition of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, and that this teleological ethical theory played a significant role in the way that they thought about the Christian life. However, the Puritans were also heavily voluntarist in the way they emphasized obedience to the will of God; firstly in the universal calling of humankind to be in right relationship with God through Christ, and secondly in the personal callings of individuals in their vocations. By using Aristotle and Aquinas as representatives for eudaimonism, Søren Kierkegaard as representative of voluntarism, and contemporary research on haecceity I hope to show that in the Puritans writing on the doctrine of calling they were able to hold the tension between eudaimonism's emphasis on the metaphysics and flourishing of individual persons and voluntarism's obedience to divine commands.
This research has contemporary political and ethical implications for a theology of work. In a de facto multi-cultural society with no unified vision of human flourishing, work itself connects individuals to each other and God and can give a Christian solution to a predominantly anti-Christian society. I argue that a secular society can adopt this Christian model even if it is not Christian as work is universally recognized as a good endeavor that brings about the flourishing of a society. With the Puritan view of calling and vocation that considers the natural gifting as valuable, a secular society can fulfill Christ's command to love their neighbor as themselves as they seek careers that are self-fulfilling and serve legitimate needs in a community.
Primary Academic Interests
- The ethics of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas and post-Reformation thinkers
- Political philosophy
- Historical theology
- The intersection of metaphysics with ethics
- Theology of work
Other Academic Interests
- John Locke
- Political and moral thought of John Calvin
- The intersection of theology and literature