Law and Theology Seminar (Spring 2025)

This 3-credit seminar is open to law students and advanced graduate students.

AB 309, Mondays, 4:00 - 5:52 pm

Description

This course provides an introduction to the intersection of law and theology (as distinct from law and religion, law and political theory, or jurisprudence).  The course focuses on Christian theology due to the influence of Christianity on the Western legal tradition, much as a course on jurisprudence would typically focus on Anglo-American jurisprudence to the neglect of important works of Islamic jurisprudence, Chinese legal thought, and other non-Western traditions.  Students are welcomed and encouraged to approach this class sympathetically, critically, or comparatively.

This course has no formal prerequisites, but students should have a passing familiarity with Augustine, Aquinas, Calvin, Luther, Locke, and Rawls.  Students without this background should read Sheldon Wolin’s Politics and Vision prior to the beginning of the semester.  The course is geared toward law students but is also open to advanced graduate students with a basic understanding of American legal education (e.g., graduate students who have a J.D. or whose graduate work has focused on American law).

Objectives

Methodological  

  • Understand, appreciate, and craft arguments from different perspectives

  • Make principled distinctions and defend them

  • Learn how to ask good questions

  • Recognize the value of interdisciplinary approaches to law

  • Write clearly, cogently, and provocatively

  • Provide lucid and helpful feedback to one another

Substantive

  • Gain familiarity with some of the leading voices in contemporary law and theology

  • Integrate philosophical, theological, and jurisprudential critiques of law

Texts

Students should acquire the following:

  • Jean Bethke Elshtain, Augustine and the Limits of Politics (Notre Dame, 1996)

  • Harro Höpfl, trans., Luther and Calvin on Secular Authority (Cambridge, 1991)

  • Elizabeth Rain Kincaid, Law From Below: How the Thought of Francisco Suarez Can Renew Contemporary Legal Engagement (Georgetown, 2024)

  • Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory (3rd Edition) (Notre Dame, 2007)

  • H. Richard Niebuhr, Radical Monotheism and Western Culture (Westminster, 1993)

  • Oliver O’Donovan, Common Objects of Love: Moral Reflection and the Shaping of Community (Eerdmans, 2001)

  • David Obderbeck, Law and Theology: Classic Questions and Contemporary Perspectives (Fortress, 2019)

  • Richard J. Regan, trans., Aquinas: Treatise on Law (Hackett, 2000)

  • Michael Tkacz and Douglas Kries, trans., Augustine: Political Writings (Hackett, 1994)

Assignments and Course Grade

Your grade in this course will be based on: (1) four short papers; (2) class participation; and (3) class presentations. (I am grateful to Professor Epps for suggesting this assignment stucture.)

1) Papers

You will write four short reaction papers in this course. Each paper should be between 5-7 pages and submitted in Microsoft Word. I will return comments using Word’s tracked changes and comments features.

You can choose which week to write your first three papers within the following constraints: (1) you must write at least one before spring break; (2) you must write at least one after spring break; and (3) you may not write for January 13, February 10, or April 14.

Your fourth paper should be submitted by Friday, April 18 (the Friday following the last Monday of our class). It should reflect what you’ve learned from this course, drawing from both MacIntyre (our first day) and Krygier (our last day) and incorporating whatever other course materials you would like to draw from.

To receive credit for your first three papers, you must upload three to the appropriate dropbox on Canvas by 10 am on the day of class. Your fourth paper should be uploaded by 5 pm on April 18.

I expect you to follow my writing guidelines for all written submissions for this course.

I will provide feedback on your papers during the semester. I will not assign letter grades to these papers, but I will comment on your writing. I will provide more feedback on your first two papers.

2) Class Participation

Do the readings, come with questions, and participate. If you are someone who tends to talk a lot, try to listen more. If you are someone who doesn’t talk much in class, this is a class in which you should talk.

3) Presentations

For each class other than the first class, several of you will present at the beginning of class. Your presentation should briefly summarize the readings and then react critically to the readings. You should coordinate with others presenting to decide how you will allocate responsibilities for this presentation, which should last no longer than 20 minutes. The number of times you have to present will depend on the total enrollment of the class, which I will finalize by the end of the first week of classes.

Attendance and Classroom Policies

Your attendance and contribution to the discussion are crucial to making this class successful and a necessary part of engaging with the complex ideas that we’ll encounter. I recognize that many of you will have occasional foreseen and unforeseen conflicts, and I will accommodate those at the margins. But you should not take this course if you think you’ll miss a significant number of classes.

Laptop computers, phones, and other gadgets are not permitted in class. Students who violate the computer or phone use policy may have their semester grades lowered.

This class is a discussion-based seminar. It will not be recorded, and you are not permitted to make your own recordings of the class.

Communication

I do not have set office hours, but I am available to meet throughout the semester. Please schedule appointments through this site. If you are unable to find a time online that works with your schedule, you can email me to set up a time.

 I will make every effort to respond to your emails within one day of your having sent them, with the exception of emails sent over the weekend or holidays, which I will answer by the following business day.

You should feel free to use office hours not only to discuss our substantive readings but also to obtain help on your writing, to ask questions about graduate school or law school, or to talk about other academic or career interests.

Course schedule

PART I: Introduction and Background

January 13 - Introduction and Biblical Texts

  • Matthew 5-7; Matthew 22; Romans 2; Romans 13; I Corinthians 6

  • Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue (Prologue, Chapters 1, 14, and 15)

January 20 - NO CLASS (MLK Day)

January 27 - The Tradition of Law and Theology

  • David Obderbeck, Law and Theology: Classic Questions and Contemporary Perspectives (Chapters 1 and 2)

February 3 - Augustine

  • Michael Tkacz and Douglas Kries, trans., Augustine: Political Writings (1994)

February 10 - Aquinas

  • Richard J. Regan, trans., Aquinas: Treatise on Law (Hackett, 2000)

  • Paul Griffiths, “The Nature of Desire,” First Things (December 2009)

February 17 - Calvin and Luther

  • Harro Höpfl, trans., Luther and Calvin on Secular Authority (1991)

February 24 - Suarez

  • [Selections, TBD]

  • Elizabeth Rain Kincaid, Law From Below: How the Thought of Francisco Suarez Can Renew Contemporary Legal Engagement (2024) (Chapters 1, 2, and 3)

PART II: Contemporary Thinkers

March 3 - Framing Contemporary Law and Theology

  • Opderbeck, Law and Theology (Chapter 3)

  • Kincaid, Law from Below (Chapters 4, 5, and 6)

March 10- NO CLASS (Spring Break)

March 17 - Niebuhr

  • H. Richard Niebuhr, Radical Monotheism and Western Culture (1993)

March 24 - Elshtain

  • Jean Bethke Elshtain, Augustine and the Limits of Politics (1996)

March 31 - O’Donovan

  • Oliver O’Donovan, Common Objects of Love: Moral Reflection and the Shaping of Community (2001)

April 7 - Hauerwas

April 14 - Concluding Thoughts

  • Martin Krygier, “Law as Tradition,” 5 Law and Philosophy, no. 2, 237-62 (August 1986)

Additional readings (optional and background)

Karl Barth, Community, State, and Church (Three Essays) (2004)

Jason Bivins, The Fracture of Good Order: Christian Antiliberalism and the Challenge to American Politics (2003)

Luke Bretherton, Christ and the Common Life: Political Theology and the Case for Democracy (2019)

Richard Church, First Be Reconciled: Challenging Christians in the Courts (2012)

Robert F. Cochran, Jr., Michael W. McConnell, Angela C. Carmella, eds., Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought (2001)

Cathleen Kaveny, Ethics at the Edges of Law: Christian Moralists and American Legal Thought (2018)

Eric Gregory, Politics and the Order of Love: An Augustinian Ethic of Democratic Citizenship (2010)

Stanley Hauerwas, The Work of Theology (2015)

Willie James Jennings, The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race (2011)

Kristen Deede Johnson, Theology, Political Theory, and Pluralism: Beyond Tolerance and Difference (2007)

Paul Kahn, Political Theology: Four New Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty (2011)

Charles Mathewes, The Republic of Grace: Augustinian Thoughts for Dark Times (2010)

Jean Porter, Ministers of the Law: A Natural Law Theory of Legal Authority (2010)

H. Jefferson Powell, The Moral Tradition of American Constitutionalism: A Theological Interpretation (1993)

Peter Scott and William T. Cavanaugh, editors, The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology (2004)

Jeffrey Stout, Democracy and Tradition (2004)

Sheldon Wolin, Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought (2004)