According to the Apostle Paul, what can be known about God--and by extension, about ethics--is plain to people, so we are “without excuse.” Romans 1:18–21 teaches that we will be “without excuse” when God confronts us for whatever beliefs and actions seemed good to us on the day, but weren't.
In our time, this notion has come to seem at least unpalatable, and more likely unbelievable. Michael D. Russell's book is an extended meditation on the possibilities in this Pauline statement and a concerted effort to enable us to understand and accept it. Situated in Reformed Protestant discussion of this matter, he offers some clarifying proposals. Maintaining all the while that whoever we are we are indeed without excuse, Michael proposes how to understand that conclusion without accepting some of the usual routes to it.
