James Richardson
“This fine edited volume is a tour de force of the relationship of Christianity to law. Editors John Witte and Frank Alexander, both of Emory University’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion, have selected a group of major scholars to address the relationship from many different perspectives. Each chapter is a succinct summary of scholarly thought on a given topic, often by those whose major works on the topic are the defining sources. Thus, this volume contains, in short but well-written form, current scholarship on a number of major areas of study.”
(James Richardson, Professor of Sociology and Judicial Studies and Director, Center for Justice Studies, University of Nevada, Reno, Review of Religious Research, June, 2009.)
Stephen McDougal
“John Witte, Jr. and Frank Alexander have gathered a set of most useful scholarly essays on the multiple, complex relationships between formal western law and the European religious heritage of Christianity. The readings are original essays, but as the book’s title proclaims, they are crafted as introductions to relatively discrete topics within the larger field of Law, Politics and Religion… the essays offer a treasure trove of historical case studies and contemporary commentary – evidence, if you will, with which to confront grand theories of all varieties.”
(Stephen McDougal, Professor of Political Science, Univ. of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Law and Politics Book Review, March 2011.)
Mark Hill
“Christianity and Law: An Introduction is a comparatively slim volume with deceptive breadth and depth in its contents. 'The editors are to be congratulated in bringing together within a single cover material which is authoritative, incisive and provocative. I anticipate that this volume will soon find itself on the bookshelves of law school libraries and theological colleges alike, and it will readily take its place as the first port of call on reading lists across a broad range of subjects…” --
(Mark Hill, Professor and Fellow, Centre for Law and Religion, Cardiff University, Ecclesiology, 2010.)
Robert F. Cochran
“Christianity and Law is a helpful addition to the growing body of scholarship that explores the relationship between Christian moral teaching and law. It may be the next step in the emergence of Christian perspectives on law as an important school of legal thought as the essays are uniformly good and well-edited…John Witte's sweeping introduction to Christianity's relations with law from the Roman Empire to the present is especially good.”
(Robert F. Cochran, Director, Institute on Law, Religion, and Ethics and Professor of Law, Pepperdine University School of Law, Journal of Law and Religion, Volume XXV, 2009-2010.)
Daniel Cere
“John Witte and Frank Alexander, the current and founding directors of the Centre for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, bring together a blue-ribbon team of scholars to provide a wide-ranging interdisciplinary overview of the complex interactions of religion and law in Western culture. This state-of-the-art survey offers an interesting array of political, philosophical, and theological perspectives on a number of key topics in contemporary jurisprudence. Witte introduces the volume with a sparkling historical panorama of four major shifts in the evolving dialectic of Christianity and law. He concludes with a plea for revival of Protestant legal theory, a revival that seems to be well underway under Witte’s intellectual leadership.” --
(Daniel Cere, Professor of Religious Studies, McGill University, Journal of Church and State, Summer 2009.)
