Since 1982, the Center for the Study of Law and Religion's publications in multiple languages have been the Center's most visible and enduring contribution to the global conversation about law and religion. CSLR now edits three book series and an international journal, and its faculty and research projects have produced more than 300 books published by leading university and trade presses. CSLR faculty, scholars, and students also publish widely in journals of law, the humanities, and social sciences, and have edited several journal symposia on discrete law and religion themes.
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Toward a Theory of Human Rights: Religion, Law, Courts
Michael J. Perry
Neither the morality of human rights nor its relation to the law of human rights is well understood. In this book, Michael Perry addresses three large issues. There is undeniably a religious ground - indeed, more than one religious ground - for the morality of human rights. But is there a secular ground for the morality of human rights? What is the relation between the morality of human rights and the law of human rights?
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To Have and To Hold: Marrying and Its Documentation in Western Christendom, 400-1600
Philip L. Reynolds and John Witte Jr.
This volume analyzes how, why, and when pre-modern Europeans documented their marriages - through property settlements, prenuptial contracts, court testimony, church weddings, and more. The authors consider both the function of documentation in the process of marrying and what the surviving documents say about pre-modern marriage. After analyzing the foundations of Western marriage set by Roman law and Patristic theology, the chapters provide vivid case studies of marital documents and practices in medieval France, England,
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Natural Law and the Two Kingdoms: A Study in the Development of Reformed Social Thought
David VanDrunen
Conventional scholarship holds that the theology and social ethics of the Reformed tradition stand at odds with concepts of natural law and the two kingdoms. But David VanDrunen here challenges that status quo through his careful, thoroughgoing exploration of the development of Reformed social thought from the Reformation to the present.
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The Sins of the Fathers: The Law and Theology of Illegitimacy Reconsidered
John Witte Jr.
For nearly two millennia, Western law visited the sins of fathers and mothers upon their illegitimate children, subjecting them to systematic discrimination and deprivation. The graver the sins of their parents, the further these children fell in social standing and legal protection. While some reformers have sought to better the plight of illegitimate children, only in recent decades has illegitimacy lost its full legal sting. Yet the social, economic, and psychological costs of illegitimacy still
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Proselytism and Orthodoxy in Russia: The New War for Souls
John Witte Jr. and Michael Bourdeaux
Few of the struggles Russia has undergone since the fall of Communism have been fiercer than that being fought between the long-repressed Russian Orthodox Church and a host of groups seeking to evangelize the Russian people. This volume assesses the legitimacy of the Orthodox attempt to reclaim the spiritual and moral heart of the Russian people and to retain their adherence in a new, pluralistic world where many Christians and followers of other traditions seek
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The Vocation of the Child
Patrick Mckinley Brennan
Rather than discussing their possible vocation, discussions of children tend to center on their rights or duties. Does God have intentions for their young lives -- before they grow up and become “real” people? Distinguished jurist Patrick McKinley Brennan has gathered sixteen authors to approach this idea in various ways, from historical to psychological to theological. The authors explore throughout whether it is possible for adults to either squander their children's vocations or instead to
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Constitutional Rights, Moral Controversy, and the Supreme Court
Michael J. Perry
In this important book, Michael J. Perry examines three of the most disputed constitutional issues of our time: capital punishment, state laws banning abortion, and state policies denying the benefit of law to same-sex unions. The author, a leading constitutional scholar, explains that if a majority of the justices of the Supreme Court believes that a law violates the Constitution, it does not necessarily follow that the Court should rule that the law is unconstitutional.
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Public Pulpits: Methodists and Mainline Churches in the Moral Argument of Public Life
Steven M. Tipton
Since the 2000 presidential election, debate over the role of religion in public life has followed a narrow course as pundits and politicians alike have focused on the influence wielded by conservative Christians. But what about more mainstream Christians? Here, Steven M. Tipton examines the political activities of Methodists and mainline churches in this groundbreaking investigation into a generation of denominational strife among church officials, lobbyists, and activists. The result is an unusually detailed and
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Christianity and Law: An Introduction
John Witte Jr. and Frank S. Alexander
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,
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Sharing the Book: Religious Perspectives on the Rights and Wrongs of Proselytism
John Witte Jr. and Richard C. Martin
More than a dozen religious leaders offer authoritative statements and analyses of classic and contemporary perspectives on mission activity and conversion in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
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Equality and the Family: A Fundamental, Practical Theology of Children, Mothers, and Fathers, in Modern Societies
Don S. Browning
Interest in psychology permeates our culture, with psychological solutions advanced for a host of moral dilemmas. How should ethically minded Christians include insights from such disciplines as psychoanalysis, cognitive moral development, and neuroscience in their theological reflection? Don Browning offers a serious proposal for combining these disciplines with the best in ethical reflection from a Christian standpoint. Along the way, he introduces readers to the moral psychology work of Sigmund Freud, Carol Gilligan, Antonio Damasio,
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The Pursuit of Justice and Jewish Law: Halakhic Perspectives on the Legal Profession
Michael J. Broyde
A Jewish lawyer is bound to – sometimes torn between – two disparate systems of law and ethics. What do you do when your religion conflicts with your obligations as a lawyer? For that matter, how do you know what your religious obligations are? Michael J. Broyde, Professor of Law at Emory University, founding rabbi of the Young Israel in Atlanta and a member dayan of the Beth Din of America, takes a fearless inside
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Suing for America's Soul
R. Jonathan Moore
When John W. Whitehead founded The Rutherford Institute as a Christian legal advocacy group in 1982, he was interested primarily in the First Amendment's religion clause, serving clients only when religious freedom was at stake. By the mid-1990s, however, religious rights were but one subset of all the freedoms that he saw threatened by an invasive government. In Suing for America's Soul R. Jonathan Moore examines the foundation and subsequent practices of The Rutherford Institute,
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Liberty: Rethinking an Imperiled Ideal
Glenn Tinder
Liberty is a dangerous concept. It's sure to be misused and, if left unchecked, will likely bring not social harmony and happiness but their opposites. Nonetheless, liberty is absolutely necessary: without it there can be no authentic community. People are not free to do the right thing unless they are free to do the wrong thing; if they can't be wrong, they can't be right. Thus does Glenn Tinder, in this provocative work, argue emphatically
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The Teachings of Modern Orthodox Christianity on Law, Politics, and Human Nature
John Witte Jr. and Frank S. Alexander
The Teachings of Modern Orthodox Christianity on Law, Politics, and Human Nature examines how modern Orthodox Christian thinkers have answered the most pressing political, legal, and ethical questions of our time. It discusses the enduring teachings of important Orthodox Christian intellectuals of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Leading contemporary scholars analyze these thinkers' views on the nature and purpose of law and authority, the limits of rule and obedience, the care of the needy
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The Teachings of Modern Protestantism on Law, Politics, and Human Nature
John Witte Jr. and Frank S. Alexander
The Teachings of Modern Protestantism on Law, Politics, and Human Nature examines how modern Protestant thinkers have answered the most pressing political, legal, and ethical questions of our time. It discusses the enduring teachings of important Protestant intellectuals of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Leading contemporary scholars analyze these thinkers' views on the nature and purpose of law and authority, the limits of rule and obedience, the care of the needy and innocent, the
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The Teachings of Modern Roman Catholicism on Law, Politics, and Human Nature
John Witte Jr. and Frank S. Alexander
The Teachings of Modern Roman Catholicism on Law, Politics, and Human Nature examines how modern Catholic thinkers have answered the most pressing political, legal, and ethical questions of our time. It discusses the enduring teachings of important Catholic intellectuals of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Leading contemporary scholars analyze these thinkers' views on the nature and purpose of law and authority, the limits of rule and obedience, the care of the needy and innocent,
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The Equal-Regard Family and Its Friendly Critics: Don Browning and the Practical Theological Ethics of the Family
John Witte Jr. and M. Christian Green
This volume is both a celebration and an evaluation of the work on sex, marriage, and family life by Don S. Browning, the dean of modern family studies in theological ethics and practical theology. Scholars probe a number of Browning's contributions, particularly his call for an ethic of "equal regard" within the household and wider society. This book is a true interdisciplinary effort, with insights from psychology, history, law, theology, biology, ethics, feminist theology, childhood
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African Constitutionalism and the Role of Islam
Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im
Constitutionalism is steadily becoming the prevalent form of governance in Africa. But how does constitutionalism deal with the lingering effects of colonialism? And how does constitutional law deal with Islamic principles in the region? African Constitutionalism and the Role of Islam seeks to answer these questions. Constitutional governance has not been, nor will be, easily achieved, Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im argues. But setbacks and difficulties are to be expected in the process of adaptation and indigenization
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American Religions and the Family: How Faith Traditions Cope with Modernization and Democracy
Don S. Browning and David A. Clairmont
Religions respond to capitalism, democracy, industrialization, feminism, individualism, and the phenomenon of globalization in a variety of ways. Some religions conform to these challenges, if not capitulate to them; some critique or resist them, and some work to transform the modern societies they inhabit.