Event Details

Christianity and Law. An introduction

Imagen

Author: John Witte, Jr. and Frank S. Alexander (eds.)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Publication Place: Cambridge
Pages: 360
ISBN: 9780521697491
Category: n\a

Description

What impact has Christianity had on the law from its beginnings to the present day? This introduction explores the main legal teachings of Western Christianity, set out in the texts and traditions of scripture and theology, philosophy and jurisprudence. It takes up the weightier matters of the law that Christianity has profoundly shaped – justice and mercy, rule and equity, discipline and love - as well as more technical topics of canon law, natural law, and state law. Some of these legal creations were wholly original to Christianity. Others were converted from Jewish and classical traditions. Still others were reformed by Renaissance humanists and Enlightenment philosophers. But whether original or reformed, these Christian teachings on law, politics and society have made and can continue to make fundamental contributions to modern law in the West and beyond.

Table of contents

Introduction - John Witte, Jr. 
1. Law and religion in Judaism - David Novak 
2. Law in early Christianity - Luke Timothy Johnson 
3. Western canon law - R. H. Helmholz 
4. Natural law and natural rights - Brian Tierney 
5. Conscientious objection, civil disobedience, and resistance - Kent Greenawalt 
6. The Christian sources of general contract law - Harold J. Berman 
7. Proof, procedure, and evidence - Mathias Schmoeckel 
8. Family law and Christian jurisprudence - Don S. Browning 
9. Poverty, charity and social welfare - Brian S. Pullan 
10. Property and Christian theology - Frank S. Alexander 
11. Christian love and criminal punishment - Jeffrie G. Murphy 
12. Christianity and human rights - Michael J. Perry 
13. Religious liberty - David Little 
14. Modern church law - Norman Doe 
15. Religious organizations and the state: the laws of ecclesiastical polity and the civil courts - William Bassett 
16. Christianity and the large scale corporation - David A. Skeel, Jr.

Highlights