Kingdoms in Conflict

Charles Colson, Kingdoms in Conflict (1987).

From the publisher:
This bestseller tackles the question: “What does the Bible say, and what do learn from history about the proper relationship between faith and culture?”

Note: This book was updated as God and Government (2007) for a post-911 audience.

A House Divided? Anabaptist and Lutheran Perspectives on the Sword

David M. Smolin, A House Divided? Anabaptist and Lutheran Perspectives on the Sword, 47 J. Legal Educ. 28 (1997).

From Smolin’s introduction:
“Christian law teachers deal with one question that would be no different if we taught history or sociology: what does Jerusalem (our religious faith) have to do with Athens (the academy)? But, because we are law teachers, there is an additional question we must answer: what does Jerusalem have to do with Rome (the state)? . . . We are children of the notion that an entire civilization--including the sword, including government, including force and war--can be Christian, even though we worship a Lord who declined a political kingdom and went to die on the cross. Many theological traditions have wrestled with this dilemma; I will emphasize here the Lutheran and Anabaptist perspectives, and then compare them to Roman Catholic and Calvinistic approaches."

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.

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.

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).

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 Roots of American Order

Russell Kirk, The Roots of American Order (3d ed 1991).

This is a classic that discusses American democracy and culture in the context of the Christian tradition. A great history lesson, it touches on the major players, classical and modern, that have shaped the American legal system.

Here's a review from Worldview Academy:

Russell Kirk’s love of order makes him a tad too cautious for me. Some people are conservative by choice and some by temperament; Kirk is conservative for both reasons. I can understand—and usually embrace—conservative arguments, but I don’t understand the mindset that views “playing it safe” as good advice. My sympathies are all with Robert Louis Stevenson when he says, “It is better to live and be done with it, than to die daily in the sick-room. . . . and does not life go down with a better grace, foaming in full body over a precipice, than miserably straggling to an end in sandy deltas?” But I suppose Stevenson would have made a lousy legislator, as I know I would. The best makers of public policy are those grey men usually derided as “policy wonks,” men who get bogged down in the details and take the time to see every element of a problem. There’s nothing very sexy about maintaining order in a free society, but of course order is crucial for freedom to be preserved.

Kirk knows this and revels in it, and is happy to take pains to spell out how much of American society has its roots in ancient Greece and Rome, and in the wisdom contained in the Old and New Testaments. Kirk then traces this heritage through the Middle Ages, through the Reformation, to the founding of America. He is careful in making his connections, but he is also smart enough to tell some stories along the way—to help the reader see history as the source of much of what we take for granted today.

In this regard, The Roots of American Order is a remarkable book. It is not easy to help students largely unconcerned with government to see how the Magna Carta or Lex Rex revolutionized their own lives, but Kirk takes the time and sketches out the “big picture” skillfully. Unless you are something of a policy wonk yourself, you’ll be glad someone else took the time to do this.

As you read and enjoy, you may even be able to forgive Kirk his relentless caution—though it’s hard to forgive a mindset that gushes over men like Richard Hooker and claims things like, “Democracy in America was made possible by the growth of a colonial aristocracy.”

Still, his general thesis is true: America’s “attachment to certain enduring principles of order has done much to preserve America from the confused and violent change that plagues most modern nations.” Students need to understand this, and Kirk is ready to teach it—carefully.

For another excellent book review, read this one by Lee Edwards.

Areopagitica and Other Political Writings

John Milton, Areopagitica and Other Political Writings of John Milton (Liberty Fund 1999).

Milton’s political works are not as well known as Paradise Lost, but they were quite influential. His political writings convey a Puritan perspective on the biblical role of the state, the nature of freedom, and the role of free people. This book can also serve as a useful reference (456 pages).

From the Publisher's Note:

As poet, statesman, and pamphleteer, John Milton remains one of the singular champions of liberty in the annals of history. Even in his mediations on theology Milton strove to demonstrate that liberty—of conscience—is one of the inviolable rights of free peoples. In his theological writings he seeks to unite ancient philosophy and the authority of the Judeo-Christian scriptures to support the concept of free, republican government. During the crises that wracked English life and liberties during the seventeenth century, Milton's was one of the indispensable voices and pens. He published several revolutionary manifestos, two works defending regicide, and of course the famous Areopagitica, or defense of freedom of expression and the press against censorship.

Read Milton's political works here.

Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought

Michael McConnell, Angela Carmella, and Robert Cochran, eds., Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought (Yale University Press 2001).

From the Publisher's Note:

Eminent legal scholars—including Stephen Carter, Thomas Shaffer, Elizabeth Mensch, Gerard Bradley, and Marci Hamilton—describe how various Christian traditions, including the Catholic, Calvinist, Anabaptist, and Lutheran traditions, understand law and justice, society and the state, and human nature and human striving. The book reveals not only the diversity among Christian legal thinkers but also the richness of the Christian tradition as a source for intellectual and ethical approaches to legal inquiry.

If you've read this book, please offer a comment!

The Founders' Constitution

Philip B. Kurland & Ralph Lerner, eds., The Founders’ Constitution (Liberty Fund 2000).

This impressive five-volume sourcebook is a “collection of thoughts, opinions, and arguments of the Founders.” It is also

an anthology of reasons and of the political arguments that thoughtful men and women drew from, and used to support, those reasons. . . . [T]hose reasons and political arguments have enduring interest and significance for anyone who purports to think about constitutional government in general and the Constitution of the United States in particular.

Philip B. Kurland & Ralph Lerner, eds., The Founders’ Constitution ix, xi (Liberty Fund 2000).

Volumes 2 through 5 are organized by the text of the Constitution and Amendments. Each section is set out, and is followed by an index of the major thoughts, opinions, and political arguments surrounding that section of the Constitution. The sources are many and varied, and include classics, from Calvin to Blackstone to Kent, as well as more obscure sources, letters, and articles. Volume One contains sources for “Major Themes,” from “the Popular Basis of Political Authority” to “Bicameralism.”

A great web-based edition is available here.

Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity

Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1593).

From Russell Kirk:

Richard Hooker deserves close study—in part because the Anglicans or Episcopalians (and the Methodists who in the eighteenth century branched off from Anglicanism) had much to do with the forming of American thought and custom, and in part because his principles retain enduring value in their own right. In the Christian humanist Hooker, the right reason of Thomas Aquinas was joined with the renewing vigor of the Reformation. . . . . This is a work of religious philosophy, rather than of theology strictly; its political theories have outlasted the immediate controversies that brought forth the treatise.

Russell Kirk, The Roots of American Order 241-42 (3d ed. 1991).

The work is long, and we have been unable to locate an edited version of the political/legal writings of this influential theologian. For a summary of the major themes of his writing, see the continuation of the foregoing discussion in Russell Kirk, The Roots of American Order 240-47 (3d ed. 1991). In addition, many scholarly works address the contributions of Hooker’s theology to legal and political theory. See, e.g., A.P D’Entreves, Medieval Contributions to Political Thought: Thomas Aquinas, Marsilius of Padua, Richard Hooker (1959); and Robert K. Faulkner, Richard Hooker and the Politics of a Christian England (1981).

Read this work here.

Institutes of the Christian Religion

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559).

A brief description of this important work:

The Celebrated Treatise . . . holds a place in the short list of books that have notably affected the course of history, molding the beliefs and behavior of generations of mankind. Perhaps no other theological work has so consistently retained for four centuries a place on the reading list of studious Christians. . . . The work was designed both as a compendium of the doctrines of the Christian religion and as a confession offered to a persecuting king in behalf of the author’s fellow believers.

Institutes of the Christian Religion, Editor’s Introduction, at xxix, xxxiii (John T. McNeill, ed., Ford Lewis Battles, trans., Westminster Press 1960) (1559).

This is perhaps the classic of Protestant theology, and, in addition to basic doctrinal themes, it contains many concise discussions of the law, authority, and civil government.

The preferred edition appears to be the Library of Christian Classics edition: John T. McNeill, ed., Ford Lewis Battles, trans., Westminster Press 1960 (available for purchase here). The 1845 Henry Beveridge translation, published by Eerdmans (1972), is available in paperback, or you can read it online here.

God and Caesar

John Eidsmoe, God and Caesar: Christian Faith and Political Action (1984).

An introduction to the relationship of Christianity and politics from a biblical perspective. Eidsmoe explores issues such as economics, welfare, crime, the family, war and more. At 229 pages, digesting this work is not an overwhelming task.

God, Man, and Law: The Biblical Principles

Herbert W. Titus, God, Man, and Law: The Biblical Principles (Institute in Basic Life Principles 1994).

This important book, part casebook (it contains numerous court opinions), part history lesson, and part legal and theological treatise, addresses every important legal theme. It is divided into eight sections (God, Man, Legal Education, and Law; Law: The Biblical Foundations; Jurisdiction; Equality; Fault; Vow; Dominion; Restitution), and each section is followed by a set of study questions with scripture references, designed to lead the reader to the scriptures for answers to the important issues raised in the chapter. The text and interspersed readings do not provide pat answers, but point the reader to issues for deeper reflection and study.

With regard to the section on legal education, Dean Titus’s work addresses the history of American legal education and the impact of social Darwinism and scientific humanism on the law school (pp. 1-29).

Because of this structure and the book’s length (309 pages plus notes, index, and glossary), this book would be excellent for group discussion or as a source book for a bible study. Dean Titus writes in his introduction that his book is “designed to challenge the reader to develop a Biblical understanding of law, with particular focus on law in the United States of America.”

Note: Also available online here.