Law and the Bible: Justice, mercy and legal institutions
Robert F. Cochran Jr. and David VanDrunen, editors
Apollos £16.99
(978-1-84474-923-2)
Church Times Bookshop £15.30 (Use code CT508 )

THERE can be no doubt about the central part played by law in both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. The aim of this study is not to produce a comprehensive biblical theology of law or an ideal biblical code. Rather, it is to make its readers think, and so become more faithful Christians and participants in their own legal system.

In nine chapters, we are taken from Genesis to Revelation, as each part of the Bible is scrutinised to ascertain what legal truths scripture can teach contemporary Christians, each chapter being co-written by a legal scholar and a theologian, mostly from the United States. Appeal is made to natural law and tradition, besides scripture, although what in natural law is "natural" remains a subject for continued debate.

While the authors readily recognise the limitations of their project, and indeed of law itself, there is much here that is worth contemplating, particularly where reference is made to current issues such as immigration, international debt relief, credit-card reform, divorce, provision for the poor and vulnerable, and apartheid. Even the legal process itself is questioned. Should lawyers be engaged in resolving conflicts through mediation rather than exacerbating them in the courts?

Caution needs to be exercised, however. By and large, no attempt is made to take into account biblical criticism, the text being taken as it is read. Consequently, there is no discussion of how Israel's own understanding of her God and, for that matter, her law developed, all scripture being given equal weight. This leads one pair of authors to argue that capital punishment under appropriate procedures can be justified for murder - an important issue in America.

Further, while there is much in the Bible to aid contemporary legislators, despite their living in a radically different society, thought must, however, be given to the original purpose of a biblical law. For instance, no mention is made that the prohibition of adultery had nothing to do with sexual ethics. Limited to sexual intercourse with a married or betrothed woman, its purpose was to ensure certainty in paternity - important in a society that did not believe in life after death, but that one's personality went on in one's children.

Nevertheless, this study, which raises important issues that affect Church and State, as well as the individual within both, confirms that it is a mistake to think that the Bible provides all the answers to how humankind, even in a Christian society, should organise its affairs. In the end, we are left to work things out for ourselves in a fragmented and fragile world. But, for Christians, their decisions must rest on the fact that God created everyone in his image and likeness, and that all have been redeemed by Jesus.
 

Canon Anthony Phillips is a former headmaster of The King's School, Canterbury.