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.

Exploring Lon L. Fuller’s critique of Nazi law, David McIlroy examines the debate between legal positivists and natural law theorists on whether the Nazi regime truly adhered to the rule of law or systematically abandoned it.