There is a higher law than human law, one from which the authority and justice of man’s law flows into bountiful life. Accordingly, we often see Christian legal theories in terms of knowledge about law, so that what we know of the higher law informs what we should affirm or deny about human law. But Dean Eric Enlow says that another important kind of Christian knowledge about law is how to praise God in relation to it. This praise stirs up and responds to the joy which Christians experience in law, just as praise does when it recognizes and replies to God’s presence in other parts of creation.
Dean Enlow gave two addresses on this topic at the 2017 Christian Legal Society national conference in Newport Beach, encouraging those in attendance to learn to praise God in law.
His first presentation was Joyful Jurisprudence: God’s Presence in Law and Man’s Praise of God, the keynote for the annual Christian Legal Scholars’ Symposium, sponsored by CLS friend and partner Trinity Law School. It was an inspiring presentation and discussion, and the conversation spilled over into the conference bookstore afterwards.
This episode of Cross & Gavel allows listeners to sit in on that conversation, with host Mike Schutt, Dean Eric Enlow, and our friend Byron Borger, owner of Hearts and Minds Bookstore.
Enjoy the conversation!
Dean Enlow graduated from Yale University and Washington University School of Law. During law school, Professor Enlow served on the editorial boards of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy and the Washington University Law Quarterly.
He has clerked in the United States Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, and he was in private practice in intellectual-property, international, and appellate law. In addition to being dean of the Handong International Law School, Enlow teaches Christianity and Law, International Intellectual Property, Patents, Private International Law, and Torts.
Byron Borger has been talking books almost his whole life, and doing it well and for the good of Christ’s kingdom. Since the early 80’s, he and his wife Beth have, through Hearts and Minds Books in Dallastown, PA, lived out a mission to see the body of Christ encouraged and the world around them flourish. They believe that ideas matter and that books are an important part of Christian discipleship– “a disciple is learner, after all,” says Byron. Whether you’re in his store, on the phone with him, or at one of the many conferences at which he and Beth serve, it is always a treat to talk books with Byron. Subscribe to his amazing Booknotes here. (He mentions this podcast in the latest edition).
Cross & Gavel Audio is a project of the Institute for Christian Legal Studies, a cooperative ministry of Regent University School of Law and Christian Legal Society.
Mike Schutt is associate professor at Regent and director of ICLS and Law Student Ministries for CLS.
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