Christian Influence on American Law

I’m very pleased that my colleague Thomas Berg has blogrolled me on the excellent Mirror of Justice site. For those of you who haven’t yet found it, Mirror of Justice is a blog dedicated to the development of Catholic legal theory. There is some excellent discussion going on there.

One post that caught my eye is a review of a law review article that presents a nuanced evaluation of influence of Christian thought on early American law. The article’s author, law professor Michael Hernandez, acknowledges the influence of Christian thought on the founding of America, but also notes that the founders often departed from authentic Christianity, not least in the individualistic and racist attitudes that perpetuated African slavery and inequity towards Native Americans. Even as to one of our most revered documents, Prof. Hernandez notes,

The Declaration of Independence and the Founders’ views reveal that our nation was founded on the primacy of individual liberty. The extent to which the Founders elevated individual liberty contrasted with earlier Christian doctrine regarding the rights of individuals and the nature of law and government and also undermined the influence of normative Christianity on the development of the law.

This sort of careful analysis deserves a close reading among American Evangelicals. As Greg Sisk notes in his review of the article,

All Americans should be aware of the extent to which authentic Christianity influenced the founding of this nation, and Christians should proudly affirm that aspect of America’s heritage. However, unless and until Christian theorists constructively address the history described in this article, including proposing solutions to the continuing problems caused by our nation’s failings, Christianity’s influence on American law and culture will continue to wane. Christians are called not to whitewash the sins of our forebears, but “[t]o act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with [our] God.”