It Sounded Great in the Glossy Brochure...So Where is it? Carrying Out the Mission at a Mission Driven School

Abstract

Law schools’ statements of mission and purpose are of central importance. It is in these statements that we try to reveal the core of who we are--the compass that guides all else--and they may determine where a student will ultimately enroll. This is especially important at a religiously affiliated school where the mission may be the most important factor leading students to attend.

The article describes one way we approached the issue of mission fulfillment at Regent: engaging in a process of faculty exploration of how the Christian faith relates to law. Leading thinkers in the Christian Church have written on the intersection of law and theology for two thousand years. Some faculty members were thoroughly conversant with this literature; others were only marginally so or not at all. We determined that at a minimum, the whole faculty must have a baseline of knowledge of the historic teachings of the Church in the field. And so we took on the challenge of studying – through reading and group discussion – Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anabaptist teachings on law and theology as they have been developed and presented throughout the history of the Church. It was a huge task, but a necessary one if we are to approach the field in a scholarly way, and a fruitful one if, as we believe and teach, Christian theology has had an impact on the development of the law throughout history.

The article describes the process we employed at Regent, but it concludes with some general thoughts about how mission-related training could be applied at any school, religiously affiliated or not.

Keywords: law, law school, Christianity, mission, faculty, training, religiously-affiliated, religion, Bible