Subjects:

Jurisprudence

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 cvil courts

William Bassett

16. Christianity and the large scale corporation

David A. Skeel, Jr.

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.