The nineteenth and twentieth centuries have seen fundamental controversies between the so-called positivist jurisprudence and opposing forces of various brands. While positivist purists sought to ‘cleanse’ jurisprudence of any factor outside the realm of legal rules set by the sovereign, their opponents contend that neither law as such nor any legal principles ever emerge in the aseptic conditions of a philosophical vacuum, but always depended upon and exerted impact upon other fields, such as religion, economics, culture, philosophy and a broader anthropology.

The two volumes of The teachings of modern Christianity on law, politics and human nature follow the latter, interdisciplinary path: they focus on the impact that Christianity in general and the teachings of Christians in particular had on legal thought in the twentieth century. The collection of essays and texts is the result of a three-year project of the Law and Religion Programme at Emory University. Within this project ten groups of specialists addressed the relevance of the topic ‘Christianity and the nature of the person’ from the vantage point of their own particular discipline.

The first of these volumes contains, apart from forewords by John T. Noonan, Jr, and Martin E. Marty, and a general introduction by the editors, twenty-five contributions which highlight the pertinent work of Roman Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox authors on the relevance of Christianity for law. The first section, on the Roman Catholic tradition, is introduced by Russell Hittinger and comprises chapters on Pope Leo xiii (1810–1903) by Hittinger, on the French philosopher Jacques Maritain (1882–1973) by Patrick McKinley Brennan, on the American theologian John Courtney Murray (1904–67) by Angela C. Carmella, on Pope John xxiii (1881–1963) by Leslie Griffin, on the Latin-American liberation theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez (b. 1928) by Paul E. Sigmund, on the American political activist Dorothy Day (1897–1980) by David Gregory, and on Pope John Paul ii (1920–2005) by Robert P. George and Gerard V. Bradley.

There follows a second section, on the Protestant tradition, with an introduction by Mark A. Noll and contributions on the Dutch theologian and statesman Abraham Kuyper (1827–1920) by Nicholas P. Wolterstorff, on the American freethinking Quaker Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) by Mary D. Pellauer, on the Swiss theologian Karl Barth (1886–1968) by George Hunsinger, on the German theologian and participant in the resistance movement against the National Socialist regime in Germany Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–45) by Milner Ball, on the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) by Davison M. Douglas, on the American theologian and civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr (1929–68) by Timothy P. Jackson, on the American legal theologian William Stringfellow (1928–85) by Frank S. Alexander, and on the American Mennonite theologian and pacifist John Howard Yoder (1927–97) by Duncan B. Forrester.

The Orthodox tradition is introduced by Paul Valliere and illustrated by chapters on the Russian philosopher Vladimir Soloviev (1853–1900) by Valliere, on the Russian theologian Nicholas Berdyaev (1874–1948) by Vigen Guroian, on the Russian philosopher Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky (1903–58) by Mikhail M. Kulakov, on the Russian nun and social reformer Mother Maria Skobtsva (1891–1945) by Michael Plekon, and on the Romanian theologian Dumitru Stăniloae (1903–93).

Two afterwords, one by Kent Greenawalt, ‘Reflections on Christian jurisprudence and political philosophy’, and one by Harold J. Berman on ‘An ecumenical Christian jurisprudence’ complete the volume.

The second volume contains sample readings from all the theologians discussed in the first volume, introduced by the respective authors of the relevant contributions.

The two volumes present the reader with an illuminating and nearly all-encompassing overview of the breadth of Christian legal thought in the twentieth century. All the three denominational traditions are represented, by academics like Maritain, Niebuhr and Lossky, who dealt with the inter-relation between Christian theology and temporal law and politics from a scholarly point of view, as well as by what might be called ‘practitioners’ like Day, Martin Luther King and Mother Maria, who took a more programmatic approach to the subject. Particularly interesting for readers who have restricted themselves so far to the treatment of the Christian theology of law by ‘western’ teachers will be the encounter with their counterparts in the Orthodox tradition.

It has to be acknowledged that any selection of representatives of a certain theological tradition will mean neglect of others. This is especially true of the Protestant tradition, which is used as a generalising label for many and rather diverse subtraditions – for example, the fact that representatives of the rather lively Anglican/Episcopal tradition of Christian legal thought did not find any entry into this volume may seem somewhat curious. However, such desiderata are hard to avoid within the confinements of any overview such as this work. On the whole the representatives selected for this work do indeed cover modern Christian legal thought in the broadest sense.

These all-encompassing, versatile and most illuminating volumes are to be recommended to anyone who is interested in understanding modern Christian legal teaching not only by hearing about it, but also by encountering those who have shaped it.