Christianity has a complicated relationship to law. Unlike Judaism and Islam, which are nomocentric religions, Christianity doesn’t have a law per se. Believers don’t worship God primarily by discovering and following a system of divinely ordained rules. There is no Christian “law” of inheritance, for example, that directs beneficiaries how to divide up property. But Christianity doesn’t entirely reject law. The Catholic tradition, in particular, places emphasis on natural law as a rational system–an emphasis that Orthodox and Protestants view with great suspicion. As I say, it’s complicated.
When it comes to the relationship between Christianity and civil law, things are complex as well. The Bible teaches Christians to give Caesar his due, but not more than that–to comply with civil law, but not if that means violating God’s law. Where to draw the line, especially in a contemporary, religiously pluralistic society, is often debatable.
A new book by Australian law professor Benjamin Saunders (Deakin University), The Crisis of Civil Law: What the Bible Teaches about Law and What It Means Today, addresses these complications. The publisher is Lexham Press. Looks very interesting. Here is the description from the publisher’s website:
How should Christians think about law?
In every age, this is one of the most difficult questions faced by followers of Christ. Within the modern church, there is little unity on how Scripture addresses issues like gun control, abortion, and whether we should disobey unjust laws. In The Crisis of Civil Law, legal scholar Benjamin B. Saunders draws from Scripture and the Christian tradition to provide valuable guidance on contemporary legal questions and the role of civil government. We can gain greater clarity by wisely applying the moral law found in Scripture—as well as the universal standards of the natural law—to the changing circumstances of human societies.
The Crisis of Civil Law includes detailed discussion of the biblical material on law as well as practical case studies that contextualize scriptural principles in modern Western society.