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Civil Disobedience: Reflections on the Contribution of James Luther Adams

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Milton R. Konvitz
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Extract

James Luther Adams was famous for his pioneering work in religion and public life, religion and society. His interests embraced economics, public policy, contemporary culture, civil liberties, and church law. His wide-ranging mind at times compellingly focused on issues in civil law as well. I say “compellingly” advisedly, for Adams was essentially a Protestant theologian who had a central concern with the work and influence of Luther, so it was natural and inevitable that his interest would flow from theology of law to the wider subject of law and religion.

Adams' study of an issue was often characterized by certain intellectual qualities. He tried to include almost all aspects of the question; he was not satisfied, as courts at times are, with seeing only a single set of facts and answering a question that is limited only to the facts before him. He could see other sets of facts, and asked, what about them? This approach naturally forced him to look for an organizing principle, an all-embracing concept or set of concepts. First, then, he tried to be comprehensive in his examination; and secondly, he tried to be principled in his analysis and thinking.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , 1995 , pp. 9 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 1995

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References

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2. New State Ice Co. v Liebmann, 285 US 262 (1932).

3. Weems v United States 217 US 349, 373 (1910).

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27. Josephus, , 2 The Jewish War 184–203, 401–03 (Harvard U Press, 1927)Google Scholar. See also Konvitz, Milton R., Conscience and Civil Disobedience in the Jewish Tradition, in Polner, M and Goodman, N., eds, The Challenge of Shalom 174 (New Society Publishers, 1994)Google Scholar; and Konvitz, Milton R., Judaism and the American Idea 91 (Cornell U Press, 1978)Google Scholar.

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39. Garner v Louisiana, 368 US 157 (1961).

40. Taylor v Louisiana, 370 US 154 (1962).