Summer 2013
Journal of Christian Legal Thought
Proclaiming Enduring Truths
By Michael P. Schutt, Editor
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n May 1994, First Things published the now-wellknown statement of Christian unity, Evangelicals and Catholics Together. Its second paragraph begins:
the idea that public justice is a gift from God to be administered by human beings. In the meantime, we have lost the public vocabulary to talk about the relationship of justice, restitution, and the state, preferring instead the generic vocabulary of “social justice,” which identifies everything—from charity, mercy, and friendship, to environmental policy, private contracts, and pet care— as implicating public justice. At the same time, legal education and practice are experiencing a time of unprecedented upheaval. At the heart of the crisis is the poor job market accompanied by the rising cost of law school and corresponding high student debt loads. It is past time for a self-correction, and many are predicting the closing of a large number of law schools and major changes in legal education and its mission. In short, “the Christian mission in the world”— as it relates to law and public justice—“faces a moment of daunting opportunity and responsibility.” Evangelical and Catholics Together on Law is a timely and critical piece of cultural-theological commentary in the face of these crises in legal education and the administration of public justice. While our law schools may be in flux and confidence in the role of the state may be shaken, the kingdom of God, as the late Dallas Willard liked to say, is not in trouble. It is fitting that the Church—a pillar and buttress of truth—should proclaim and affirm the “enduring truths” that shape the “law’s place and role in society.” As Christians in the legal profession, this proclamation is a critical part of our calling. May this statement encourage reflection, discourse, and action toward, in its words, “a more just world.”
As Christ is one, so the Christian mission is one. That one mission can be and should be advanced in diverse ways. Legitimate diversity, however, should not be confused with existing divisions between Christians that obscure the one Christ and hinder the one mission. There is a necessary connection between the visible unity of Christians and the mission of the one Christ.
Ten years later, inspired by the same spirit of Christian unity and mission, a group of law professors began meeting together to discuss Evangelicals and Catholics Together on Law. The Journal of Christian Legal Thought, concurrently with the Journal of Catholic Social Thought, is pleased to publish the resulting document, the product of eight years of discussion, meeting, and drafting. The subtitle of the original Evangelicals and Catholics Together is The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium. Its opening sentence proclaimed that “the Christian mission in the world faces a moment of daunting opportunity and responsibility.” In the nearly two decades since this statement, we truly have witnessed a new era in the mission of the Church. We see, for example, growing political divisions and a shrinking demographic in the Western Church, with the light of the gospel shining brighter in Africa, South America, and Asia than ever before. The perceived mission of the Western state is changing, too. While a new generation of students has developed a renewed interest in international justice, human trafficking abuses, and the poor, it despairs more and more of the ability of Western institutions themselves to actually do justice in any systematic or meaningful way. While confident in various personal callings to do justice here and abroad, many have no confidence in even
Mike Schutt is the director of the Christian Legal Society’s Law Student Ministries and the Institute for Christian Legal Studies, a cooperative ministry of CLS and Regent University School of Law. He is the author of Redeeming the Law: Christian Calling and the Legal Profession (InterVarsity Press 2007) and is an associate professor at Regent University School of Law.
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