Ethics at the Edges of Law

Ethics at the Edges of Law makes the case that religious moralists should treat the discipline of law as a valuable conversation partner, rather than reducing it to a vehicle for enforcing judgments about morality and public policy. Religious moralists should treat the secular law as a source of moral wisdom and conceptual insight, in the same way that they treat the discipline of philosophy. Cathleen Kaveny develops her argument by showing how the work of arange of important contemporary figures in Christian ethics, including John Noonan, Stanley Hauerwas, and Margaret Farley, can be enriched and illuminated by engagement with particular aspects of the American legal tradition. The book is divided into three parts: Part I, "Narratives and Norms," examines howthe workings of the legal tradition can shed light on the development of religious and moral traditions. Part II, "Love, Justice, and Law," uses particular legal cases and controversies to advance questions about the relationship of love and justice in Christian ethics. Part III, "Legal Categories and Theological Problems," shows how legal categories and concepts can help reframe and even resolve particular moral controversies within religious communities. Ethics at the Edges of Law jumpstartsa fruitful, mutually engaged conversation between the American legal tradition and the tradition of Christian ethics.

In the end, while Kaveny's book and its conceptually rich mining of the disciplines of law and religious ethics is directed, in the first instance, toward the revitalization of the field of religious ethics, Kaveny's many reflections on legal pedagogy suggest that interdisciplinary approaches can benefit the study of law, as well., Cathleen Kaveny's collection of essays, Ethics at the Edges of Law, provides abundant practical wisdom about pressing issues by showing how the legal tradition can serve as a source of insight for Christian ethicists and for the morally serious general public as well. Those of us who seek inspiring examples of how careful and articulate thinking can advance the quality of public life should be grateful for books like Kaveny's [...] In sum, both the range of issues in this book and the depth of wisdom and learning that Kaveny brings to them are consistently impressive., Ethics at the Edges of Law is a sophisticated plea for ethicists to take law seriously in their pursuit of justice, with implications that extend far beyond simple adjustments to method or approach., The scope and substance of Pryce's book are a contribution to knowledge about contemplative Christianity. Her propositions about the necessary elements that move individuals toward unitive experience being should be studied. Scholars and practitioners interested in contemplative theory and exercise will no doubt find this book an important resource. It can also be read with profit by researchers in other fields who seek to know how blurring and boundary-crossing in contemporary American Christianity happens in practice., In Ethics at the Edges of Law, Cathleen Kaveny makes a robust and compelling case that the methodology and categories of the law would help theologians clarify their work and navigate the controversies which beset them.

Cathleen Kaveny is the Darald and Juliet Libby Professor of Law and Theology at Boston College. She came to Boston College in 2014 after teaching for many years at the University of Notre Dame. She is a past president of the Society of Christian Ethics and chair of the board of trustees of the Journal of Religious Ethics.