{"title":"The Role of the Christian Legal Scholar: The Call for a Modern Saint Benedict","authors":"Lee J. Strang","doi":"10.2139/SSRN.843787","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In his book, After Virtue, the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre issued a stinging indictment of modern society. In the famous last sentence of After Virtue, MacIntyre stated that [w]e, our society, are waiting . . . for another - doubtless very different - St. Benedict. I want to propose that Christian law professors should see themselves and their role in accord with MacIntyre's call. In this Article I will try to explain why. First, I will review St. Benedict's life and argue that he created the institution, the form of community - Western monasticism - that preserved much of classical civilization and which was instrumental in synthesizing a new, Christian civilization. Second, I will discuss the state of American culture as diagnosed by MacIntyre. I will then propose how Christian legal scholars should respond: what our role is in American society. I will argue that Christian law professors have three analytically distinct possible roles: building Christian law schools, rebuilding Christian law schools, and what I will label engaging in the debate. Scholars may assume different roles over their careers and aspects of more than one role concurrently. Then I will briefly discuss how one can know what role(s) one should assume, as a Christian legal scholar. Lastly, I will return to St. Benedict and how his legacy of preserving and creating offers a model for Christian law professors fifteen hundred years later.","PeriodicalId":82192,"journal":{"name":"Notre Dame journal of law, ethics & public policy","volume":"20 1","pages":"59"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2005-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Notre Dame journal of law, ethics & public policy","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.2139/SSRN.843787","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In his book, After Virtue, the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre issued a stinging indictment of modern society. In the famous last sentence of After Virtue, MacIntyre stated that [w]e, our society, are waiting . . . for another - doubtless very different - St. Benedict. I want to propose that Christian law professors should see themselves and their role in accord with MacIntyre's call. In this Article I will try to explain why. First, I will review St. Benedict's life and argue that he created the institution, the form of community - Western monasticism - that preserved much of classical civilization and which was instrumental in synthesizing a new, Christian civilization. Second, I will discuss the state of American culture as diagnosed by MacIntyre. I will then propose how Christian legal scholars should respond: what our role is in American society. I will argue that Christian law professors have three analytically distinct possible roles: building Christian law schools, rebuilding Christian law schools, and what I will label engaging in the debate. Scholars may assume different roles over their careers and aspects of more than one role concurrently. Then I will briefly discuss how one can know what role(s) one should assume, as a Christian legal scholar. Lastly, I will return to St. Benedict and how his legacy of preserving and creating offers a model for Christian law professors fifteen hundred years later.