theonomy
a term used to identify a distinctive approach to ethics, which gains its meaning by contrast with 'autonomy' and 'heteronomy'. Christian ethics would be heteronomous if they were understood to derive their authority simply from divine decree, in church, Bible, or individual conscience, without any attempt to think them through in terms of human understanding. As such they would be protested against by advocates of the autonomy of ethics. These would insist that if the human race is ever to escape from its collective childhood, it needs to enable all its members to be independent and to able to think rationally for themselves. One Christian response to this is that the pursuit of reason, as of knowledge and understanding, is not by definition 'against God'. On the contrary, reasoned argument in its own terms, and as combined with the sources and resources in the Christian tradition for making moral judgement, promotes human integrity. It does this in a way that is open to its own depths and to wider inspiration. As such, it is 'theonomous'.
See also:
autonomy