Holiday Greetings from the Center for the Study of Law and Religion

Volume 6 Number 2

December 2012

Greetings!

This holiday season, the faculty and staff of CSLR offer blessings to those vulnerable populations who are suffering due to injustices in our society.

In the New Year, we will examine two aspects of this issue as part of our lecture series, When Law and Religion Meet: The Rights of the Needy. On February 20, CSLR Founding Director Frank S. Alexander explores the basic American ethos of housing and homeownership. On March 27, we welcome Michael Welker, a world-renowned theologian from the University of Heidelberg. Professor Welker will examine the Biblical ethos of mercy. Details of these lectures are included below.

The New Year also ushers in a major step forward for our Center. We've named Silas Allard, a highly distinguished alumnus of our Law and Religion Program, as our Associate Director. We've asked Silas to lead us into a new generation of law and religion scholarship that encompasses all the world's religions and increases our focus on public policy outcomes. We're honored and delighted that Silas has agreed to join us in August 2013.

And speaking of happy news during this festive season, CSLR Senior Fellow Brent Strawn's spectacular new book, The Bible and the Pursuit of Happiness, is just out from Oxford University Press. It will make a great gift for your friends and colleagues.

We hope to see you at one or more of our 2013 lectures, and we wish you Happy Holidays!

Sincerely,

John Witte, Jr. Frank S. Alexander

Silas Allard Allard Tapped to Lead CSLR into Next Generation of Scholarship

CSLR has appointed Silas Allard, a distinguished alumnus of its joint degree program in law and religion, as associate director, beginning in August 2013. Among his primary roles will be to widen CSLR's religious scope beyond the three Abrahamic religions to include Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Taoism and Indigenous Religions. He also will help CSLR bridge its theoretical, historical and comparative work into hands-on, practical and community outreach work. READ MORE

Alexander, Welker Tackle Housing Crisis, Mercy in Spring Lectures

CSLR's 2012-2013 lecture series, When Law and Religion Meet: The Rights of the Needy, continues in the spring semester. On February 20, Frank S. Alexander, CSLR Founding Director and Sam Nunn Professor of Law, addresses America's housing crisis in a lecture titled "Housing America's Families: Investments, Risks, and Families." The event takes place in Emory Law's Tull Auditorium at 12:30 p.m. Lunch will be provided for those who sign up by February 15. SIGN UP

Welker_100x100 On March 27, Michael Welker, Chair for Systematic Theology at the University of Heidelberg, explores Biblical teachings about helping the poor. His lecture, "The Power of Mercy in Biblical Law," takes place at Candler School of Theology, Room 252. Ordained in the Protestant Church of Palatinate, Germany, Welker is a world-renowned theologian who works through the biblical traditions and through philosophical and sociological theories to address questions of contemporary culture. He is director of the University of Heidelberg's Research Center for International and Interdisciplinary Theology, and studied with Jürgen Moltmann, one of the most celebrated theologians of modern times. Lunch will be provided for those who sign up by March 22. SIGN UP

New Book on Bible and Happiness Makes Great Gift for Festive Season

A new book edited by CSLR Senior Fellow Brent Strawn is a sure way to kindle the holiday spirit-- and discourage the season's avid consumerism. Essays by esteemed scholars, including Emory University's Carol Newsom, Carl Holladay, and Thomas G. Long, explore what the Bible has to say about the meaning and pursuit of happiness. "When you look to the Bible about human flourishing or the good life, you come away with something more complex and variegated than having lots of money, free time and pleasure," says Strawn.The book is divided into three parts: Old Testament, New Testament, and Beyond the Bible. The Bible and the Pursuit of Happiness (Oxford Univiersity Press, 2012) is a product of CSLR's Pursuit of Happiness Project.
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Seminal Books on Law and Religion Now Available in Chinese Translation

Berman.Interaction.Chinese Three important works by CSLR scholars are now available in Chinese translation. Harold J. Berman's The Interaction of Law And Religion is just out from the Commercial Press, Ltd., Bejing. Berman (1918-2007) was Emory University's first Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law and is considered the father of the modern study of law and religion. Interaction was first published in 1974 by Abingdon Press and was ground breaking work in law and religion studies.

China Legal Publishing House has published translations of two additional books by CSLR Director John Witte, Jr. From Sacrament to Contract is widely considered the standard history on Western marriage, while the latest edition of Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment, now adding as co-author CSLR Senor Fellow and Professor of Law Joel Nichols, has been heavily used as a standard text on the First Amendment's religious freedom clauses. China Legal Publishing House, the leading publisher of legal material in China, has already published four volumes by Witte on the history of marriage, family, and children, and on the Protestant Reformation and law. This is also the Chinese publisher of Berman's two volumes on Law and Revolution (1983 and 2006), both originally published by Harvard University Press.