Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

11-17-2008

SSRN Discipline

Legal Scholarship Network; PRN Subject Matter eJournals; *Humanities - Forthcoming Areas; Philosophy Research Network; Religious Studies Research Network; Law School Research Papers - Legal Studies; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; Law School Research Papers - Public Law & Legal Theory; Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence & Legal Philosophy eJournals; Humanities Network

Abstract

This paper is a preliminary investigation of what Christian theology might teach us about the nature of human creative activity and its relationship to judging and lawmaking Rather than attempt to survey and synthesize multiple theological accounts of human making it focuses on just one Dorothy Sayers The Mind of the Maker The foundational analogy that drives Sayers account of human creativity is the relation between Gods creative activity and that of human beings made in his image Sayers argues that human creative activity has a trinitarian structure which she identifies as Idea Energy and Power These three elements correspond roughly to i the whole Idea of the work in the mind of the artist with reference to which the creative activity is carried out Father ii the creative Activity that makes the work incarnate Son and iii the works Power to influence the human person and the communitys public context Spirit Sayers account suggests an alternative to simple affirmations that law is either found or made There may well be in a society a normative institution that we might call The Law an accretion of cultural artifacts that form the context of public action reflecting a communitys values and particular circumstances or at least those of its ruling elites or groups as well as its rules its legal traditions and in an incomplete way the general loves and commitments of the community While one might presume on the basis of the Christian revelation that there will always be some connection at some points with moral truth there is no reason to presume that such a connection necessarily exists all the way down or even very much of the way down the chain of legal particularities Yet it would seem to be undeniable that a communitys traditions though they themselves are shifting and changing exert a remarkable pull in particular and identifiable directions at any given time This pull may be strong enough that it is possible for judges to declare The Law with the attendant goods of stability predictability consonance with existing social norms etc without equating The Law with transcendent moral truth

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