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For those interested, I’ve uploaded my Ph.D. dissertation to the Writings page. You can find it here. My friend John Fraiser is reading it, and I’d love some feedback from other philosophers and philosophy students. Here’s the abstract:

GOD AND MORAL FACTS:
A TRINITARIAN REALIST
MODEL OF CHRISTIAN METAETHICS

Michael Brian Trapp, Ph.D.
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2010
Chairperson: Dr. Mark Coppenger

This dissertation is a model of Christian metaethics based on God’s Triune nature.

Chapter 1 discusses overall issues and problems in metaethics and how they relate to Christian theology, with emphasis on problems for Christian metaethics.

Chapter 2 examines contemporary secular versions of moral realism in the academy. It also inquires into the various ways God may be related to moral obligations.

Chapter 3 includes a broad survey of traditional Christian metaethics. Christian thinkers from both natural law and divine command traditions are examined.

Chapter 4 surveys metaethical models of writers from the revival of Christian metaethics in the twentieth century.

Chapter 5 includes the dissertation’s main argument for Trinitarian moral realism. God’s Triune existence is posited as a fruitful way of founding moral obligations that dodges familiar conceptual difficulties.

Chapter 6 seeks to show how Trinitarian realism can move from theory to practice. It first compares Trinitarian realism with Islamic metaethics. It then shows how the model can be applied to a particular moral case and, finally, to Christian apologetics.