Foreword: What Does Christianity Offer to the World of Law?

Abstract

The interaction of law and Christianity has been a perennial topic of study over the past two millennia. In recent years, however, this topic has taken on new importance in legal education as scholars have wrestled with the contributions that Christian ideas, institutions, methods, and practices can make to state law. Both biblical and traditional Christian teachings, these scholars have shown, still have salience for law in a post-Christian culture, dedicated to religious freedom for all and religious establishment for none. This essay analyzes a few of the main contributions Christianity has made and can make to modern legal systems.

Keywords: Christianity; church; law; Bible; Ten Commandments; Mosaic law; critical legal studies; the weightier matters of the law; Scripture and tradition; justice and mercy; church law; New Testament; Catholicism; Protestantism