Religion & Law

At my behest, Greg Wolfe has kindly responded to my posts here, here, here, here, and here:

I am grateful to Michael Scaperlanda for engaging my reflections on the culture wars and politicization so thoughtfully.

It's true that legal thought has a natural tie to politics -- but law also relates to culture in important ways. An extension of my thesis would be that legal scholars should think more about how culture shapes law.

(I happily acknowledge that politics and law can shape culture, but I also happen to believe that too much stress has been placed on that directionality.)

Politics and law help to adjudicate competing visions -- visions that are shaped by story and symbol, which well up from the culture.

In particular, legal studies would be enriched by a study of narrative -- by the way narratives that give meaning to our lives.

Think of the way that abortion has been depicted in film -- for example, "Vera Drake," "The Cider House Rules," and others.

These stories shape what we think of when we hear a word like "choice."

My argument, in short, is that we've spent too little time and resources on transforming the culture through narrative and beyond.

At any rate, thanks to Michael for his generous response to my work. I'm grateful to know about your blog and the good work you are doing.

If I can leave with parting advertisement, you can learn more about my work at the IMAGE journal website:

http://imagejournal.org/

We too have a daily blog, "Good Letters," which is available on our home page or as an RSS feed. Our mission is to publish narratives, poems, paintings, etc. that are animated by the Judeo-Christian tradition of faith.

Cordially,

Greg Wolfe