The City of God Meets Anabaptist Monasticism

David M. Smolin, The City of God Meets Anabaptist Monasticism: Reflections on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of Wisconsin v. Yoder, 25 Capital U. L. Rev. 841 (1996).

Law and Christianity (Symposium at Vanderbilt)

Symposium, Law and Christianity, 10 Vand. L. Rev. 879 (1957).

Includes Samuel E. Stumpf, Theology and Jurisprudence (885); William S. Ellis, The Christian Lawyer as Public Servant (912); and William G. Stringfellow, The Christian Lawyer as Churchman (939), among others.

Law and Christianity (Symposium at Oklahoma)

Symposium, Law and Christianity, 12 Okla. L. Rev. 45 (1959).

This symposium from over fifty years ago raised a number of issues that are still relevant to Christians who study and practice law.

The contributors and their topics included: James A. Pike, Introduction (45); Albert Mollegen, Christ and Law (48); Wilbur G. Katz, Christ and Law (57); Markus Barth, Christ and Law (67); Harold J. Berman, The Influence of Christianity upon the Development of Law (86); John Mulder and Karl Olsson, Christian and Lawyer (113); and Jacques Ellul, Propositions Concerning the Christian Attitude Toward Law (134).

Christian Perspectives on Law and Legal Scholarship

Symposium, Christian Perspectives on Law and Legal Scholarship, 47 J. Leg. Ed. 1 (1997).

Professors Gerard Bradley, David Caudill, David Smolin, and Robert Cochran contributed to this symposium.

More recently, Mark Osler points to an article by Prof. David Skeel, Jr. exploring this topic. Prof. Skeel's article discusses why evangelicals have not contributed much in the way of legal scholarship, and it's worth a read: 57 Emory L.J. 1471 (2008).

Fountain of Justice

John C. H. Wu, Fountain of Justice: A Study in Natural Law (New York, Sheed and Ward, 1955; Taipei, Mei Ya Publications, 1971).

For an excellent (if dated) review, one should read John T. Noonan, Jr.'s piece in the Harvard Law Review. The citation is: John T. Noonan, Jr., Review, 69 Harv. L. Rev. 1519 (1956).

A short biography and bibliography can be found here.

Essays on Faith and Liberal Democracy

Christopher Wolfe, Essays on Faith and Liberal Democracy (University Press of America, l987).

This collection of essays includes a discussion of A Letter Concerning Toleration by Locke as well as Tocqueville’s Democracy in America.

If you would like to learn more about Prof. Wolfe and his scholarship, here's a short biography.

Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment

John Witte, Jr., Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment: Essential Rights and Liberties (Westview 1999).

Steven D. Smith offers a thoughtful and thorough review at First Things. To get a taste, here are the first several paragraphs:

John Witte’s book on religious freedom is a work of impressive erudition and formidable complacency. Witte capably surveys the historical developments preceding the First Amendment and supplies a helpful overview of the often neglected period from the adoption of that amendment through the 1940s, when the Supreme Court invaded the field. Later chapters give interesting details on the history of tax exemptions for church property and also furnish a comparative perspective with a quick look at international human rights law. The book contains a wealth of information about, for example, state constitutional provisions and Supreme Court decisions, much of it accessibly presented in appendices. And the chapters summarizing modern establishment and free exercise clause decisions discuss the central cases, accurately on the whole. If the overall presentation here is a bit convoluted, the problem results in part from the fact that it is hard to present in an orderly and sensible way material that is the opposite of orderly and sensible.

Taken as a sort of primer/reference work, in short, this is a useful book to have on the shelf. But the book promises to be more than that. In his introduction, Witte notes that modern developments in religious freedom "have bred not only frustration about the vast inconsistencies of the American experiment but doubts about its very efficacy." Later he describes our situation as one of "acute crisis." Witte proposes to address this crisis by "return[ing] to first principles" in order to reassess those principles in light of the American experience.

This preview raised my hopes, but I misunderstood what Witte had in mind. I thought that by reassessing first principles, Witte meant something like reexamining the basic assumptions that underlie the modern discourse and decisions concerning religious freedom. That sort of reexamination is sorely needed. Instead, Witte vigorously and uncritically acquiesces in the same old assumptions. He gives us more of what we already have too much of.

From the Center for the Study of Law and Religion (of which Witte is the Director) comes this brief description:

This volume offers a novel reading of the American constitutional experiment in religious liberty. The First Amendment, John Witte Jr. argues, is a synthesis of both the theological convictions and the political calculations of the eighteenth-century American founders. The founders incorporated six interdependent principles into the First Amendment -- liberty of conscience, freedom of exercise, equality of faiths, plurality of confessions, disestablishment of religion, and separation of church and state. Both the nuance and the balance of these six principles have often been lost on current interpreters of the First Amendment. Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment urges a return to the principled approach to religious rights, evident both in the American founding era and in the modern international human rights movement. Witte uses these principles to analyze the free exercise and establishment case law of the last two centuries. He then illustrates the virtues of his principled approach through analysis of the thorny contests over tax exemptions for religions and the role of religion in the public school, among others.

Liberty of Conscience: The History of a Puritan Idea

L. John van Til, Liberty of Conscience: The History of a Puritan Idea (Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing 1992).

From the publisher: [This book] [s]hows the development of the idea of liberty of conscience from the English Puritan William Perkins to the First Amendment two hundred years later.


A critical book review by George M. Waller can be found in The Journal of American History, Vol. 60, No. 3 (Dec., 1973), pp. 776-777.

A Covenant to Keep

James Skillen, A Covenant to Keep: Meditations on the Biblical Theme of Justice (CRC Publications and Center for Public Justice, 2000).

Here's a brief blurb from the publisher, the Center for Public Justice:

From the beginning of the creation drama to the second coming of Christ, God is fulfilling the covenant of justice. Carefully searching the scriptures, Dr. James W. Skillen confirms that justice is part of God’s way of governing and fulfilling creation and that we, as caretakers of God’s world, must take an active role in doing justice. This in-depth study will challenge you to do your part in advancing justice in God’s kingdom even as you anticipate its fulfillment at Christ’s climatic return. This is an excellent resource for adult study groups, social justice committees, and individuals that care deeply about the biblical call to do justice in public life. It includes meditations, discussion questions, and tips for action responses.

And here's more about A Covenant to Keep and James Skillen from Byron Borger at Hearts & Minds Books:

[James Skillen] is an old friend of the CCO, one of the world's leading scholars on Abraham Kuyper's reformational worldview and a gem of a political theorist. He is a guy you can trust as civic-minded, truly nonpartisan, concerned with orthodox biblical doctrine and responsible social involvement. Not one to overstate a case or get caught up in flamboyant rhetoric--in other words he ain't like me!--Jim's work at the Center for Public Justice is one of the nation's best-kept secrets, and one of the CCO's most under-utilized allies.

Recently, he compiled what may be 25 years of his Bible studies and devotions inspired by the view of the Scriptures that we call "historical redemptive" and which is best seen in the Promise & Deliverance commentaries. Not moralistic, nor stretching to force the Scriptures to "address" contemporary issues, Covenant to Keep opens up the grand sweep of the Scriptures and shows that public justice and social righteousness is integral to the redemptive work of God in history....This is one of the best Bible studies/devotionals I have ever seen....

The book includes excellent and provocative discussion questions, several really choice case studies of folk who are working hard for justice in particular places, and it is laid out in an orderly, thematic fashion. It is truly a useful handbook to the Bible and a great example of how to read the Bible faithfully, allowing it to illumine our lives, current events and our need for restorative justice.

Idols for Destruction

Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction: Christian Faith and its Confrontation with American Society (Thomas Nelson 1983).

From a book review by Edmund A. Opitz at The Freeman:

The modern world, as Mr. Schloss-berg perceives it, is steeped in polytheism. Strange gods comprise its pantheon, bearing odd names such as Historicism, Mammon, Humanism, Nature, Power, and Religion. A chapter is devoted to the left-liberal ideologies which constitute, or have infiltrated, these several fields, and well-known apologists advance their best arguments. But after our author has applied his critical analysis his opponents are left without a case. He is an acute critic who seems to have read everything the idol makers have written, and much else besides. With its full index, the book is an encyclopedic survey of contemporary ideologies. It is also an answer, point by point, to much entrenched error. As an iconoclast, Schlossberg is a smashing success as he coolly demolishes one idol after another.

But the net impact of the book is not negative, for the author has a positive philosophy of freedom to replace the dubious notions he criticizes. Schlossberg is equipped with a body of principles explicitly Christian, buttressed by ideas from the writings of men like Mises, Hayek and Friedman.

Edmund A. Opitz, Book Review: Idols For Destruction: Christian Faith And Its Confrontation With American Society by Herbert Schlossberg, The Freeman, April 1984 (Volume: 34, Issue: 4).

English Reformation: Theology of Law, Authority

Joan Lockwood O’Donovan, Theology of Law and Authority in the English Reformation (Eerdmans’s 1991).

This book is a part of the Emory University Studies in Law and Religion Book Series. Here's what they have to say:

This work examines the ideas of the English Reformers regarding the origin and nature of law and authority for both church and commonwealth. It places the political and legal thought of the Reformers in the broader context of the Reformation and its theological debates over issues such as the relationship between faith and works, Scripture and tradition. Tracing a theoretical course from William of Ockham and John Wycliff in the fourteenth century, to the fifteenth-century jurist Sir John Fortescue, to such great Tudor reformers as Thomas Cranmer and Richard Hooker, O'Donovan's exposition and analysis reveals both the complexity and continuity of English political thought during the Reformation, and demonstrates the intimate connection between theological and practical considerations of law and authority during this era.

For a thoughtful (and comprehensive) book review, take a look at Prof. Sammon's piece in the Journal of Law and Religion (Vol. 16, No. 2 (2001), pp. 519-527).

A Passion for Truth

Alister E. McGrath, A Passion for Truth: The Intellectual Coherence of Evangelism (1999).

This book is designed to equip intellectual Evangelicals to combat postmodernism, “postliberalism,” and various sacred doctrines of religious pluralism.

More about the book from InterVarsity Press.

The Emergence of Liberty

Douglas F. Kelly, The Emergence of Liberty in the Modern World: The Influence of Calvin on Five Governments from the 16th to the 18th Century (Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1992).

Commentaries on American Law

James Kent, Commentaries on American Law (1826).

Kent is often called “America’s Blackstone.” Like all early common law scholars, Kent’s scholarship is informed by a biblical worldview. Therefore, reference to any topic in his treatise will find a biblical approach to the substantive issues at hand.

Parts of the 1826 edition are available on the Internet here.

Christian Faith and Modern Democracy

Robert P. Kraynak, Christian Faith and Modern Democracy: God and Politics in the Fallen World (Notre Dame 2001).

This book is a thoughtful, broadly philosophical approach to the relationship between Christianity and American democracy. Kraynak dissects and discerns important principles and movements in philosophical and political history, and he adds his own critique of classical liberalism.

The Law of the Covenant

James B. Jordan, The Law of the Covenant: An Exposition of Exodus 21-23 (Institute for Christian Economics 1984).

This Reformed exposition delivers depth and applications rarely found in modern treatments of the Old Testament law. It is a worth-while introduction to a theonomist view towards Exodus 21-23. One should be sure to read the Introduction by John M. Frame.

Read this book here.

Natural law as "Law"

Russell Hittinger, Natural law as “Law”: Reflections on the Occasion of Veritatis Splendor, 39 Am. J. Juris. 1 (1994).

Professor Hittinger begins by defining “natural law” and then proves the centrality of theology, moral ethics, and law to modern discourse on the topic.

An Imaginary Conversation

James Gordley, Law and Religion: An Imaginary Conversation with a Medieval Jurist, 75 Cal. L. Rev. 169 (1987).

In this article, an “enlightened” law professor travels back to the “age of faith” to discuss the crucial intersection of law and religion.

Defending the Declaration

Gary Amos, Defending the Declaration: How the Bible and Christianity Influenced the Writing of the Declaration of Independence (1989).

Professor Amos argues in this book that the Bible and Christianity were the most important influences on the Framers.

Tocqueville's Democracy in America

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America (Harvey C. Mansfield & Delba Winthrop, eds. and trans., 2000) (1835).

Tocqueville’s work remains the most important historical study of American democracy. The Mansfield and Winthrop translation, with an extensive introduction, was released in 2000, but there are many good editions of this great classic. It addresses a host of important issues for Christian lawyers, including the role of government, the nature of democracy, the role of religion in society, the place of social institutions, and the nature of the American legal profession. “Tocqueville’s work allows us to see that the “culture wars” are not simply a product of 1960s radicalism. They are rooted, rather, in the permanent tension between theory and practice at the heart of American Democracy—a tension that no one has better elucidated than Alexis de Tocqueville.” Daniel J. Mahoney, Tocqueville’s Democracy, The Weekly Standard, October 23, 2000, at 36, 38.