Christians Engage the Law
I. Christians and the Law - some history
1. History of connections between law and Christianity
2. Connections are broken
II. Christians & the Law in the past century - Not engaged
III. Christians & the Law in recent 2 decades - beginning to engage again and build community
1. The religious lawyering movement and Thomas Shaffer
2. Centers
3. Some of the current scholars
4. Legal issues - old and new
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I. Christians and the Law - some history
1. The history of law in the West is linked to the development of Christianity, especially as the Church became a major institution which developed laws and legal ideas, which then mixed with the laws of kingdoms and then states. Christian connections and engagement with the law were then further forged when the Church founded universities during the Middle Ages in Europe, initially for the training of lawyers, doctors, and clergy. Below are a couple links which point to this history. Harold Berman was a leader in dusting off this history in the past half century. John Witte has continued the work begun by Berman.
Harold Berman - Emory University, Center for the Study of Law and Religion
http://cslr.law.emory.edu/
http://www.law.
“The Historical Foundation of Law”
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
John Witte, Director, Center for the Study of Law and Religion [ CSLR ] – see below
John Witte & Frank Alexander, Christianity and Law: an Introduction [Cambridge, 2008]
John Witte, "Law and Legal Theory in the Western Tradition"
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
JW, "Law and Religion: the Challenges of Christian Jurisprudence"
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
JW, "Rights in the Western Tradition"
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
W, "Facts and Fictions about the History of the Separation of Church and State"
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
2. Next is the history of how those connections were lost, or intentionally discarded. Articles by Albert Alschuler and David Skeel tell parts of that tale.
Albert Alschuler - now teaching at Northwestern, recently retired from the University of Chicago - on the role played by OW Holmes in discarding Blackstone and natural law.
http://www.law.northwestern.
"A Century of Skepticism" - First Things, February, 2002
http://www.firstthings.com/
David Skeel, University of Pennsylvania Law School, reports on the role of Harvard’s Langdell
http://www.law.upenn.edu/cf/
"The Paths of Christian Legal Scholarship" - UofPenn Public Law Research Paper 2008
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
http://www.greenbag.org/v12n2/
II. Christians & the Law in the past century - Not engaged
Resource for Roman Catholics which has long prompted Christian engagement with the law
Rerum Novarum [ Of New Things: on the Rights and Duties of Capital and Labor ] - papal encyclical by Leo XIII, published in 1891
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Marker that Roman Catholics were not as engaged with the academic enterprise as some thought necessary
Introduction - "A Catholic University: framing the conversation"
http://www.bc.edu/offices/
Msgr. John Tracy Ellis, "American Catholics and the Intellectual Life" - 1955
http://www.bc.edu/offices/
Marker for the start of Christian engagement with social issues by evangelicals
The magazine Christianity Today, founded by Billy Graham and Carl Henry, was started in 1956
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Marker for the great concern that evangelicals had gone to sleep on intellectual and social issues
Mark Noll, then professor at Wheaton College and now at Notre Dame where he can train grad students and the next generation of history professors, wrote The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind - published in 1994.
http://www.amazon.com/Scandal-
Mark Noll wrote an article on the 10th anniversary of the book - some progress to report, but not much.
"The Evangelical Mind Today" - First Things, October, 2004
http://www.firstthings.com/
Marker that Christians, esp. evangelicals went to sleep on Christian engagement with the law
David Skeel, "The Unbearable Lightness of Christian Legal Scholarship" - Emory Law J., v.57, 2008
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
III. Christians & the Law in recent 2 decades - beginning to engage again and build community
1. The Religious Lawyering Movement and Thomas Shaffer - many involved in the scholarship on what is called "religious lawyering" acknowledge Thomas Shaffer, Notre Dame law school emeritus, as the godfather of the movement. Two other major figures in this scholarship are Russell Pearce and Howard Lesnick, both of whom are Jewish.
Thomas Shaffer - "Business Lawyers, Baseball Players and the Hebrew Prophets"
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
Russell Pearce - "The Religious Lawyering Movement ...." [and Thomas Shaffer]
http://law.fordham.edu/assets/
Howard Lesnick - "Religious Particularity, Religious Metaphor, and Religious Truth: Listening to Tom Shaffer"
http://www.jstor.org/pss/
Russell Pearce
http://law.fordham.edu/
"Religious Lawyering's Second Wave"
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
Howard Lesnick
http://www.law.upenn.edu/cf/
"Riding the Wave of the Second Religious Lawyering Movement"
http://www.law.upenn.edu/cf/
"The Consciousness of Religion and the Consciousness of Law, with Some Implications for Dialogue" -reflections by a Jewish legal scholar on Jesus conversation with the inquiring lawyer
http://www.law.upenn.edu/cf/
Russell Pearce and Amelia Uelmen - "Religious Lawyering in a Liberal Democracy: a Challenge and an Invitation"
http://mirrorofjustice.blogs.
2. Centers
There are a number of centers at universities around the US, where attention is being focused on the study of the connections between the law and religion in general, and Christianity in particular. The following three are outstanding examples. There are more, as well as religiously affiliated law schools which focus on this task as well. However, we need to start somewhere, and these three provide an excellent entry point.
The Center for the Study of Law and Religion, founded in 1982 [ CSLR ] - Emory U. Law School
http://cslr.law.emory.edu/
The Institute for Religion, Law and Lawyer's Work, founded in 2001 - Fordham U. Law School
http://law.fordham.edu/
The Nootbaar Institute on Law, Religion and Ethics, founded in 2003 - Pepperdine U. Law School
http://law.pepperdine.edu/
3. Scholars
There are many Christian scholars working the problem of Christian enagement with the law. The following articles provide a very brief sample of the people, and the issues being addressed.
Harold Berman - Emory CSLR [ see above ]
“World Law: an Ecumenical Jurisprudence of the Holy Spirit”
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
John Witte, Director of CSLR
"Law and Religion: the Challenges of Christian Jurisprudence"
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
"Ishmael's Bane: the Sin and Crime of Illegitimacy Reconsidered"
- not merely a theoretical paper. Wiitte's parents took in a boy as a foster child, who was born illegitimate.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
Amy Uelmen, Director of the Insitute for Religion, Law and Lawyer's Work
"Can a Religious Person be a Big Firm Litigator?"
http://law.fordham.edu/assets/
"Toward a Trinitarian Theory of Products Liability"
http://law.fordham.edu/assets/
"Reconciling Evangeliization and Dialogue through Love of Neighbor"
http://law.fordham.edu/assets/
Robert Cochran, Director of the Nootbaar Instiitute
"Can the Ordinary Practice of Law be a Christian Calling?"
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
"Introduction: Three Approaches to Moral Issues in Law Office Counseling"
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
Faith and Law: How Religious Traditions from Calvinism to Islam View American Law - NYU Press, 2007
http://www.nyupress.org/
- table of contents and introduction are available for reading and download
Zachary Calo, Law professor - Valparaiso - living in Chicago, where his wife works
http://www.valpo.edu/law/
'"The New Internationals": Human Rights and American Evangelicalism'
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
Robert Cochran and Thomas Shaffer, “ ‘Technical’ Defenses: Ethics, Morals and the Lawyer as Friend” - Clinical Law Review, v.14, 2007
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
Thomas Shaffer, "Why Does the Church Have Law Schools?" Marquette Law Review, v.78, 1995
http://epublications.
4. a. Legal Issues - Old and enduring
Philip Hamburger, The Separation of Church and State, Harvard U. Press, 2004 - reviews
http://www.hup.
http://www.abanet.org/jd/ajc/
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
Journal of Church and State
http://jcs.oxfordjournals.org/
American United for Separation of Church and State - Barry Lynn
4. b. Legal Issues - New - a sample
See Amy Uelmen above
David Skeel, “Christianity and the Large Scale Corporation”
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
William Stuntz, “Bordenkircher v. Hayes: The Rise of Plea Bargaining and the Decline of the Rule of Law” - November, 2005, Harvard Public Law Working Paper
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
Restorative Justice Initiative at Marquette University Law School
http://law.marquette.edu/cgi-
is the only program at a law school in the U.S. Check the “button” for “Links” to see other groups which RJI works with and recommends - e.g., the Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking at the School of Social Work at the University of Minnesota, a program at Eastern Mennonite University, and Prison Fellowship International [PFI]. RJI has scholarly and news articles about restorative justice in Rwanda, South Africa, Kosovo, the U.S. and other places.
Robert Vischer, “Conscience and the Common Good” - Journal of Catholic Legal Studies, 2010
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
Rowan Williams, “Civil and Religious Law in England: a Religious Perspective” - February, 2008
http://www.
- transcript of question and answer session after the lecture
