You can read my previous posts on the newly published book "Law and the Bible: Justice, Mercy and Legal Institutions" here, here, and here. I've since read through Chapter 3 by David Skeel and Tremper Longman III Criminal and Civil Law in the Torah: The Mosaic Law in Christian Perspective and must confess that I found it less insightful than the material that preceded it
Perhaps it's because commercial law is my academic specialty that the high level of generality on that topic left me wanting more. For those who want to read my "more" you can go to the website of Third Millennium Ministries and read my five-part biblical justification for secured transactions and personal exemptions here, here, here, here, and here. Believe me when I say that these posts are lay-friendly; one need be neither a lawyer nor a theologian to follow my discussion.
And, for what it's worth, a few might want to read my academic article, The Missing Piece of the Puzzle: Perspectives on the Wage Priority in Bankruptcy (download here) where I address the contribution of nineteenth-century Evangelicals to the enactment of the debtor-friendly Bankruptcy Act of 1841.
Skeel and Longman rely heavily on the work of Christopher J.H. Wright in his 2004 book "Old Testament Ethics for the People of God" to frame their approach to use of the Mosaic law in modern secular states. Wright's book was published by InterVarsity Press in 2004 and may no longer be in print. In any event, Skeel and Longman do not interact with more recent conservative works also seeking to understand the Mosaic law such as Jonathan Burnside's "God, Justice, and Society: Aspects of Law and Legality in the Bible" (OUP 2011).
Notwithstanding my critical observations, this chapter of "Law and the Bible" is a fine resource for a basic introduction to how properly to understand and apply torah's revelation of law in today's world.
Perhaps it's because commercial law is my academic specialty that the high level of generality on that topic left me wanting more. For those who want to read my "more" you can go to the website of Third Millennium Ministries and read my five-part biblical justification for secured transactions and personal exemptions here, here, here, here, and here. Believe me when I say that these posts are lay-friendly; one need be neither a lawyer nor a theologian to follow my discussion.
And, for what it's worth, a few might want to read my academic article, The Missing Piece of the Puzzle: Perspectives on the Wage Priority in Bankruptcy (download here) where I address the contribution of nineteenth-century Evangelicals to the enactment of the debtor-friendly Bankruptcy Act of 1841.
Skeel and Longman rely heavily on the work of Christopher J.H. Wright in his 2004 book "Old Testament Ethics for the People of God" to frame their approach to use of the Mosaic law in modern secular states. Wright's book was published by InterVarsity Press in 2004 and may no longer be in print. In any event, Skeel and Longman do not interact with more recent conservative works also seeking to understand the Mosaic law such as Jonathan Burnside's "God, Justice, and Society: Aspects of Law and Legality in the Bible" (OUP 2011).
Notwithstanding my critical observations, this chapter of "Law and the Bible" is a fine resource for a basic introduction to how properly to understand and apply torah's revelation of law in today's world.
No comments:
Post a Comment