Christianity and International Law

Abstract

Abstract The role of Christianity in the development of international law is complex and contentious. A crude but tenaciously relevant distinction holds between a perspective that views Christianity as marginal to international law and one that views it as fundamental. Support for each approach is found in more general orientations trading upon broader uncertainties and controversies about international law’s character. On the one hand, the marginalizing approach is supported by an underlying orientation that treats international law as a modern invention and, thus, free of the metaphysical assumptions that granted religion wide-ranging authority in premodern times. According to this approach, the paramount authorities of the modern world are sovereign states. From the late nineteenth century, international law has witnessed the construction by and among these secular “final” authorities of a legal bond within an institutional and cultural framework emphasizing common civilizational progress. On the other hand, there is a historical orientation that attends to the roots of international law in premodernity, prominently including the universalizing language and juristic impulses of the Christian faith. This longer perspective is sensitive to how modern international law remains conditioned by these roots and to the ways in which the narrative of convergence and progress in international law is challenged and complicated by encountering a pluralism of beliefs, interests, and identities partly grounded in religious faith. Only by addressing both approaches and their respective supporting orientations can there be a balanced understanding of the ways in which Christianity affects the theory and practice of international law.