Full Description
This collection brings together lawyers and theologians in the U.S. and Europe to reflect on Lutheran understandings of the political use of the law by secular governments. The book furthers the intellectual conversation about how Lutheran insights can be used to develop jurisprudence and specific solutions to legal issues in which there is strong conflict. It presents the basic theological and interpretive assumptions of the Lutheran tradition as they may inform the creation of legislation and judicial interpretation at local, national and international levels. The authors explore Luther's conception of the foundations of modern secular law and understanding of vocation. The work discusses the application of Lutheran theological principles to contemporary issues such as the war on terror, native land rights, property law, family law, church and state, medical experimentation, and the criminal law of rape, providing ethical insights for lawyers and lawmakers.
Contents
Part I: Our Secular Age; 1. The Contribution of Law to the Secularization of Politics: Impulses from Luther's Doctrine of the Two Regimes - Stefan Heuser; Part II: Lutheran theology and legal philosophy; 2. Legal Positivism in Lutheran Ethics - Carl-Henric Grenholm; 3. Antinomianism: The "Lutheran" Heresy - Paul R. Hinlicky; Part III: The Individual and the State; 4. Separability as Distinction: The Individual Subject of the Civil Law - Michael J. Kessler; 5. Luther and Machiavelli: The Human Subject, Religion and the State - Michael Reid Trice; 6. Luther's Two Strategies and Political Advocacy: Law, Righteousness, Reason, Will and Works in their Civil Use - Craig L. Nessan; 7. A Case for Toleration: Religious Exemptions, Conscientious Objection, and the Public Good - H. David Baer; Part IV. International Law and Human Rights; 8. Liberation, Law and Proleptic Dignity - Ted Peters; 9. U.S. War-culture, The Post-9/11 "Unlawful Alien Combatant," and "Peace in God's World" - Kelly Denton-Borhaug; Part V: Domestic Legal Issues; 10. Economic Justice and the Seventh Commandment: Reformation-era Insights - Mary Jane Haemig; 11. The Doctrine of Discovery in American Indian Law: A Lutheran Theological Critique - Ronald W. Duty; 12. For the Woman Who Yelled "Fire!" in my Backyard: Rape Law and Lutheran Theology - Mary J. Streufert; 13. Re-creating the Law of the Family: A Lutheran Perspective - Marie A. Failinger and Patrick R. Keifert; Part VI: Professionals, Law and Neighbor-Love; 14. Professional Responsibility, Informed Consent and Neighbor Love in Cancer Trials: Theological, Ethical and Legal Dimensions - Deanna A. Thompson; 15. Role Morality, Dirty Hands and the Theology of Vocation - W. Bradley Wendel;
