Looking East to the Concept of Property — A Review Essay of Witte and Alexander, Christianity and Law: An Introduction

Abstract:     
The notion that there is anything like ‘Christian law’ in the way that there is Islamic law, Judaic law, or Hindu law is little understood. Yet, increasingly, scholars, both lawyers and theologians, tell us that one finds in the Western legal tradition itself a form of Christian law, at least in origin if not contemporary operation. Christianity and Law: An Introduction explores the notion of a Christian law, demonstrating the formative influence of Christianity on the Western legal tradition. In doing so, the collection of essays makes a valuable contribution to the canon of scholarship on religious legal systems. This review essay focuses on Frank S Alexander’s ‘Property and Christian theology’. Whereas Alexander relies upon Western Christian theology, this essay offers some Eastern Christian reflections on the nature of the person and how that might alter the way in which the Western liberal concept of property is understood.

Keywords: Law and Religion, Property Theory, Eastern Christianity and Law, Liberalism, Individual, Person

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