Christ our Advocate

319 Pages·2002·2.09 MB·English

JOHN WARWICK MONTGOMERY, a lawyer-theologian, holds dual Christ our
citizenship (US and UK) and resides in England and in France.
His international activities have brought him into personal contact
with some of the most exciting events of our time: he was in Paris
during the „days of May“ 1968; he assisted East Germans to
Advocate
escape during the time of the Berlin Wall; he witnessed the 1987 e
bloodless revolution in Fiji; and he was in Beijing at the time of the t
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Tiananmen Square atrocity in June 1989. In recent years he has c
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defended the religious liberties of Christian believers in national
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and European courts. Dr. Montgomery is the author of some forty- d Studies
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five books in five languages and over one hundred scholarly articles.

r in Polemical Theology,
He holds ten earned degrees, including a Master of Philosophy in u
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Law from the University of Essex, England, a Master of Laws from
Jurisprudence

Cardiff University, Wales, a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, st
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and a Doctorate of the University in Protestant Theology from the r and Canon Law
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University of Strasbourg, France. He is an ordained Lutheran C
clergyman, an English barrister, and a member of the bars of

California, Virginia, the District of Columbia, Washington State, y
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and the Supreme Court of the United States. e
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At present, Dr Montgomery serves as Distinguished Professor of o
Theology and Law and Vice-President for Academic Affairs (UK 8 g 8
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and Europe) for Trinity College & Theological Seminary, Indiana, s n s
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USA. He is Emeritus Professor of Law and Humanities, University di M di
of Luton, England. Biographical articles on him appear in Who‘s n n
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Who in America, Who‘s Who in France, the European Biographical m c m
Directory, Contemporary Authors, and Who‘s Who in the World. wi
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ISBN 978-3-932829-40-6

ISSN 1430-9068
W W W
Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft
K K K JJJJJooooohhhhhnnnnn WWWWWaaaaarrrrrwwwwwiiiiiccccckkkkk MMMMMooooonnnnntttttgggggooooommmmmeeeeerrrrryyyyy
(Culture and Science Publ.)
V V V
Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher
John Warwick Montgomery
Christ Our Advocate
edition pro mundis
Band 8
im Auftrag des Vorstandes von
Pro Mundis e. V. (Bonn)
herausgegeben von
Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher und Dr. Susanne Lux
Band 1
Inka und Torsten Marold
Immanuel:
Die Geschichte der Geburt eines anenzephalen Kindes
Band 2
Thomas Zimmermanns
Grundriß der politischen Ethik
Band 3
Thomas Schirrmacher
Marxismus - Opium für das Volk?
Band 4
Thomas Schirrmacher, Walter Schrader, Hartmut Steeb (Hg.)
The Right to Life for Every Person
Lebensrecht für jeden Menschen
Band 5
Wilhelm Faix
Die christliche Familie heute
Band 6
Meego Remmel
The Role of Christian Ethics in Postmarxist and Postmodern Estonia
Band 7
Thomas Schirrmacher
Säkulare Religionen
Aufzusätze zum religiösen Charakter von Nationalsozialismus und Kommunismus
Band 8
John Warwick Montgomery
Christ Our Advocate
Studies in Polemical Theology, Jurisprudence, and Canon Law
John Warwick Montgomery
Christ Our Advocate
Studies in Polemical Theology,
Jurisprudence, and
Canon Law
edition pro mundis 8
Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft
Culture and Science Publ.
Bonn 2002
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP - Einheitsaufnahme
Montgomery, John Warwick:
Christ our advocate : studies in polemical theology, jurisprudence, and canon
law / John Warwick Montgomery. - Bonn : Verl. für Kultur und Wiss., 2002
(Edition pro mundis ; 8)
ISBN 3-932829-40-9
© 2002 by Prof. Dr. John Warwick Montgomery,
3-5 High Street
Lidlington
Bedfordshire, MK43 ORN
England
e-mail:[email protected]
ISBN 3-932829-40-9
ISSN 1430-9068
(edition pro mundis)
Printed in Germany
Satz: Ron Kubsch
Umschlaggestaltung und Gesamtherstellung:
BoD Beese Druck, Friedensallee 76, 22765 Hamburg
Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft
(Culture and Science Publ.)
Friedrichstr. 38, 53111 Bonn
Fax [phone]
www.vkwonline.de/[email protected]
Verlagsauslieferung:
Hänssler Verlag
71087 Holzgerlingen, Tel. [phone] Fax -119
www.haenssler.de/[email protected]
For
Dr Edward Hogg
and
Dr Thomas Rodgers
of
Trinity College & Theological Seminary
Patrons et amis
"… we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the
propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole world."
1John 2:1-2
C
ONTENTS
Introduction 9
Acknowledgments 11
Modern Theology and Contemporary
Legal Theory: A Tale of Ideological Collapse 13
Canon Law as the Juridic
Reflection of Theological Norms? 35
Addendum: A Comment on the
Thinking of Professor J.W. Montgomery 49
Luther and Canon Law 55
Subsidiarity As a Jurisprudential and Canonical Theory 71
Justice Denied: Church Property
Disputes Under Current American Law 81
Addendum: Attorney-General v. Shore (1833) 94
Christian Education and Worship
in State Schools: the American Perspective 105
Church Remarriage
After Divorce: A Third Way 117
Addendum: Marriage in Church After Divorce 129
Can Blasphemy Law Be Justified? 133
Human Dignity in Birth
and Death: A Question of Values 153
Whose Life Anyway?
A Re-examination of Suicide and Assisted Suicide 169
Addendum: Euthanasia Laws Bill 1996 (Australia) Presented 193
The Embryo Cloning Danger in European Context 197
Addendum: Human Cloning Regulation in Europe 210
The Alleged Myth of the Mafia 219
Greek Opposition To Evangelism 237
Prophecy, Eschatology and Apologetics 255
Advocacy, Classical Rhetoric, and Legal Ethics:
Must The Good Advocate Also Be A Good Person? 267
Appendix: Four Reviews — and
a Defence of the Trial of Christ 283
Duncan Forrester's Christian Justice and Public Policy 284
Alister McGrath's Iustitia Dei 292
Brian Tierney's Rights, Laws and Infallibility in Medieval Thought 302
Norman Geisler's Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics 305
The Trial of Christ Defended: Jean Imbert's Le Procès de Jèsus 309
Index of Names 313
Introduction 9
I
NTRODUCTION
A little-known work by L. Frank Baum, author of the celebrated
Oz series of children's books, is a literary biography entitled, The
Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. In this delightful volume, Santa is
given a fourfold creed:
Vivre, c'est penser,
c'est lutter,
c'est chercher,
c'est aimer.
Since this Introduction is being prepared during the Advent sea-
son, it does not seem inappropriate to commandeer the sentiment
to describe the contents of this volume of essays covering religion
and law, social ethics, and the defence of Christian faith.
Penser: Readers will not be able to avoid serious reflection on
such issues as: the parallel decline in systematic theology and juris-
prudence (chap. 1); the very nature of ecclesiastical law (chap. 2);
whether the major architect of the Protestant Reformation was an
antinomian (chap. 3); the theological aspects of the almost univer-
sally praised European legal doctrine of subsidiarity (chap. 4);
whether church property should remain in the hands of a denomi-
nation when the church body no longer holds to its original beliefs
(chap. 5); whether worship and prayer should be allowed in state
schools (chap. 6); whether divorced persons should be able to re-
marry in the church (chap. 7); whether laws against blasphemy are
hopelessly outmoded (chap. 8); whether abortion, euthanasia, as-
sisted suicide, and embryo cloning can be regarded as consonant
with Christian faith (chaps. 9, 10, and 11); whether both God and in-
ternational criminal conspiracies are unverifiable and therefore an-
alytically meaningless concepts (chap. 12); whether restrictions on
evangelism should be permitted under international human rights
law (chap. 13); what kind of prophetic evidence can be marshalled
in defence of Christian truth claims (chap. 14); and, finally, what
constitutes genuinely moral advocacy (chap. 15).