In Modern Theology Jennifer Herdt reviews Oliver O’Donovan’s Gifford lectures, titled The Disappearance of Ethics. From the final paragraph:

What [O’Donovan] ends up advancing in the present book is not so much the claim that Ethics is a bearer of good news as that theology brings good news to an Ethics in danger of disappearing. The linkage between the projects is nevertheless strong. Barth opposed natural theology because he held that theology should never allow other disciplines to set the terms of inquiry; the autonomy of theology flowed from proper recognition of divine sovereignty. Yet a supreme confidence in divine sovereignty goes further, in declaring the autonomy of other disciplines merely apparent: while there may be ethical stances, say, that take themselves to be independent of what God has done in Christ, this autonomy is an illusion—in fact, all creation reflects this Christological reality. I myself have argued that only this latter, comprehensive, form of Christian particularism is finally coherent; an exclusive particularism that seeks to remain wholly within first-order Christian categories founders on the fact that core theological concepts are not exclusively Christian even where they have become distinctively Christian—think of terms such as “scripture,” “liturgy,” “ecclesia,” “worship,” “God,” and even “Christ” (the anointed one). O’Donovan is right to grasp that this insight re-opens the door to natural theology. He does not allow other disciplines to set the terms of inquiry. And the natural theology that he has given us in this book will challenge and inspire for years to come. The Disappearance of Ethics—the book, that is, not the travails of the discipline—is good news indeed.