Are religiously affiliated law schools obsolete in America? The view of an outsider looking in

St. John's Law Review, Summer 2000 by Lee, Randy

Yet, even if the traditional justifications for religiously affiliated law schools seem outdated, in the end, I consistently conclude that the case for religiously affiliated law schools has never been better. The religiously affiliated law school of today, however, must be more than a school open to all God's people and tolerant of His voice. It must pursue a radical vision of faith and of community. It must not be content to use federal laws or ABA standards as an excuse for religious timidity. It must seek the limits of religious identity; while remaining true to its function as a law school, it must strive to grow in its mission of faith.

Thomas Shaffer tells a story from his days as Dean of Notre Dame Law School that highlights what a religiously affiliated law school is tempted to be but cannot become. One day, a Notre Dame student came to Dean Shaffer to question the crucifixes on the classroom walls and the prayers that began some classes.24 No doubt such expressions of faith could leave non-Christian students feeling out of place. In today's "community" of diversity-consciousness and accommodation, a dean would recognize the need to respond to those feelings and end such practices. Dean Shaffer, however, informed the student that the practices were hardly "remarkable" at a Catholic law school named for the Mother of God.25 In fact, one might well have wondered whether Christian students who had come to such a school because of the prayer and crucifixes would have felt out of place if those things had suddenly disappeared.

This exchange holds two lessons for religiously affiliated law schools. First, community, particularly religious community, is more than a place where everyone tolerates everything. In the early Christian Church, community was a place where "[t]he community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common;"26 where "if [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy;"27 and where all sought to be formed by their beliefs in one image.28 This did not mean that there were no questions to be pondered or solved in this community,29 nor did it mean that everyone always agreed.30 These differences, however, were not the goal of the community, but challenges to be worked through with common beliefs and a common objective.31 This vision of community based on bonds of common faith in action is hardly uniquely Christian, but is reflected in many faiths.

Today's religiously affiliated law school must seek to reflect this notion of community.32 Some law students of faith are called upon to be lights in secular institutions, and there are secular institutions to serve them. Others, however, are called upon to be educated within their faith tradition, and religious law schools should be prepared to serve these students. These schools can and should teach law with a focus on the unique questions the law poses to their particular community; but even more, they must also teach community. As law students see the depth of community around them in law school, they can begin to imagine how they, as a lawyers, might build community in the world or rebuild it in the Church. As students begin to dream such dreams, the community of their religious law school can build them up and encourage those dreams, rather than merely tolerate them.