Law as Religion, Religion as Law

In contrast with the conventional approach, this volume explores the dynamic interplay and intersection of law and religion.

David C. Flatto (Edited by), Benjamin Porat (Edited by)

9781108486538, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 August 2022

400 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.7 cm, 0.73 kg

'Too often, debates and doctrines about 'law' and 'religion' presume that these are sharply distinct, entirely separate practices or ideas. This volume enriches and deepens our understandings and conversations by reminding us that legal and theological reasoning are often analogous and complementary, that religious and political institutions regularly and appropriately cooperate, and that legal and religious beliefs and practices are profoundly shaped by each other.' Richard W. Garnett, Professor of Law, Director, Notre Dame Program on Church, State & Society, Concurrent Professor of Political Science, Notre Dame Law School

The conventional approach to law and religion assumes that these are competing domains, which raises questions about the freedom of, and from, religion; alternate commitments of religion and human rights; and respective jurisdictions of civil and religious courts. This volume moves beyond this competitive paradigm to consider law and religion as overlapping and interrelated frameworks that structure the social order, arguing that law and religion share similar properties and have a symbiotic relationship. Moreover, many legal systems exhibit religious characteristics, informing their notions of authority, precedent, rituals and canonical texts, and most religions invoke legal concepts or terminology. The contributors address this blurring of law and religion in the contexts of political theology, secularism, church-state conflicts, and the foundational idea of divine law. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Part I. Sanctification and Secularization: 1. Desanctification of law and the problem of absolutes Jeremy Waldron
2. The paradox of human rights discourse and the Jewish legal tradition Suzanne Last Stone
3. Sovereign imaginaries: visualizing the sacred foundation of law's authority Richard K. Sherwin
Part II. Legal-Religious Language: 4. Dat: from law to religion: the transformation of formative term in modern times Abraham Melamed
5. Law as religion, religion as law: Halakhah from a semiotic point of view Bernard S. Jackson
6. Canonicity as a defining feature of legal and religious discourse: a programmatic essay Daniel Reifman
Part III. Legal-Theological Roots: 7. Exceptional grace: religion as the sovereign suspension of law Robert Yelle
8. A bad man theory of religious law (numbers 15:30-31 and its afterlife) David C. Flatto
9. Soviet law and political religion Dmytro Vovk
10. International law as evangelism Kevin Crow
Part IV. Religious Conceptions of Law: 11. 'Enjoin them upon your children to keep' (Deuteronomy 32:46): law as commandment and legacy, or, Robert Cover meets Midrash Steven D. Fraade
12. 'Between man and god' and 'Between man and his fellow': categories in Polemical context Itzhak Brand
13. Christian feasts and administration of Roman justice in late antiquity Silvia Schiavo
Part V. Law in Formation: Religious Perspectives: 14. Law as a problematic aspect of religion: Paul's skepticism in a broader Jewish context Serge Ruzer
15. When law meets theology: legality and revelation in the Jewish, Islamic, and Zoroastrian traditions in the Abbasid period Yishai Kiel.

Subject Areas: Legal system: general [LNA], Legal ethics & professional conduct [LATC], Legal skills & practice [LAS], Jurisprudence & philosophy of law [LAB], Jurisprudence & general issues [LA], Philosophy of religion [HRAB]