In today’s world where the boundary between religion, spirituality, and the rule of law is debatably blurred and contentious, it is interesting to revisit how much of the legal system is founded on Christian religious teachings. This paper explores this topic through the lenses of Craig Stern. Modern law and governance have deep religious roots as they are endorsed in the Biblical Teachings.
Christian doctrines provide a robust foundation for the rule of law. The book of Genesis recognizes various attributes of God and asserts that humans are made in the image and likeness of God. Accordingly, Stern argues, it makes man special enough to ensure that human conduct honors God. For this reason, God entrusted civil governments with the “sword” as a sight of authority ad power. However, this power is bound by law, and so is whoever wields it. In a related publication, Stern notes that even “the king must not be under man but under God and under the law, because law makes the king” (Stern 2003). In other words, the law is paramount, binding all men, and should reflect godliness.
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God is pure; it would be inappropriate to contend that He disregards innocence. The same way innocence is valued in the biblical teachings, it remains valuable in the contemporary law settings. Stern highlights extreme examples in the Bible where even minors were punished severely, by stoning to death for instance. Today, this would probably be seen as violation of basic human rights. Nevertheless, Stern encourages people to examine the standard of purity or code of ethics that guided those contexts. To emphasize biblical basis of innocence, Stern reverts to the question of justice, stressing that those in authority anywhere are strictly required to administer proportionate punishment according to the crime in question. In this regard, an innocent person must not be hurt or his or her rights infringed upon through unscrupulous or underhand methods of pursing justice.
The legal concept of just desert is deeply embedded in Christian doctrines. Exploring this seemingly controversial subject, stern explains that the civil government and the church, whose separating boundaries may be blurred or engraved depending on one’s understanding, have different standing orders. The later, having been entrusted with the sword, is in charge with doing justice, which is defined in Genesis 9:6 as “proportionate response to a wrong done.” Administering distributive justice following the punitive powers vested in civil governments may attract different consequences, such as deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation, but Stern contends that the effects are pretty much outside the control of man but God’s. On the other, while church may still pursue justice, its standing orders are strictly to correct, as seen in the practice of excommunication. These principles lend credence to pursuit of justice using various legal systems available locally and abroad and exonerate those who convict wrongdoers from guilt, for example.
Christian religious teachings provide a strong guide for the legal and governance practices witnessed in the contemporary society. From Stern’s perspective, one can gain a better understanding by interrogating what the Bible teaches regarding a given legal situation, or risk going against God’s will. As seen in this brief discussion, the rule of law, innocence, and justice are tough topics that, though controversial in the eyes of many non-believers, are strongly supported by Christian doctrines.
References
C&G Audio Vol 18: Craig Stern on Justice and Jurisdiction Uploaded by lsmcls at Your Listen. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://yourlisten.com/lsmcls/cg-audio-vol-18-craig-stern-on-justice-and-jurisdiction#
Stern, C. A. (2003, April 26). Stern – The Common Law and the Religious Foundations of the Rule of Law. Retrieved from https://phillysoc.org/stern-the-common-law-and-the-religious-foundations-of-the-rule-of-law/#_ftn3
