Our blog offers short, accessible, reflections on important and urgent issues for Christian lawyers, and anyone else involved in law. Here you’ll find quick, stimulating reads created to help and encourage you as you practise your legal vocation – and, indeed, as you live all of life – as a follower of Christ.
In this third post in our series, Legal Theory in Brief, David McIlroy examines the different meanings and defining features of law, contrasting checklist and central case approaches to understanding what truly makes a rule a “law.”
The second instalment in our Legal Theory in Brief Series, David McIlroy introduces us to how we might think Biblically about Law and Justice. Taking us through the broad arc of the biblical story he shows that Scripture has much to say about law and justice and how we might be faithful followers of Jesus in our studies and practice of law.
Abraham Kuyper’s vision of sphere sovereignty and common grace offered a revolutionary alternative to both church dominance and secular totalitarianism, shaping modern ideas of freedom, pluralism, and the role of government.
In this instalment in our Soul Care for Lawyers series, David McIlroy explores the meaning and necessity of coming face to face with ourselves, others, and God.
David McIlroy explores when a regime ceases to be a true legal system in his exploration and critique of Robert Alexy’s legal theory.
David McIlroy unpacks the moral underpinnings of law and power, offering Christian lawyers a framework to champion genuine justice in their work.
David McIlroy argues that binding both subjects and rulers to transparent, stable rules not only protects against arbitrary power but also illuminates how human law reflects God’s faithful, law-like nature.
Continuing our series on Power, Abuse, and Law, David McIlroy’s new blog post, Tolkien’s Theology of Power, offers a nuanced exploration of how J.R.R. Tolkien’s work challenges Christians—especially those in positions of influence—to rethink the nature and purpose of political authority. Drawing deeply from Tolkien’s letters and fiction, McIlroy presents vital insights for lawyers seeking to balance justice, humility, and responsibility.
The responses of evangelical churches and organisations to allegations of abuse have been vitiated by five factors: wrong expectations, wrong priorities, a wrong reading of biblical stories, a wrong approach to sin and crime, and a wrong view of love and justice.
Contemporary Western society suppresses the concepts of honour and shame, although they re-surface in its media in a theatre of the grotesque. Honour reinforces good behaviour through appeals to a shared morality, while shame penalises bad behaviour through disgrace and exposure. The Bible offers a different social vision, in which honour is respected through discretion, and where shame and disgrace can be dealt with through confession, reconciliation and restoration into the community.
The church and its members are not to be concerned about their reputation for their own sake or as an end in itself. But, they should seek to protect their reputation where the honour of God is at stake, provided doing so is consistent with the countercultural values of the gospel.
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