Modern Theology and Contemporary Legal Theory: A Tale of Ideological Collapse

This recording bridges an intellectual chasm often regarded as impassable, that between modern jurisprudence (philosophy of law) and contemporary theology. Dr. Montgomery's thesis is that remarkably similar developmental patterns exist in these two areas of the history of ideas, and that lessons learned in the one are of the greatest potential value to the other. The five-fold movement in the history of modern theology (classical liberalism, neo-orthodoxy, Bultmannian existentialism, Tillichian ontology, and secular/death-of-God viewpoints) has been remarkably paralleled in legal theory (realism/positivism, the jurisprudence of H.L.A. Hart, the philosophy of Ronald Dworkin, the neo-Kantian political theorists, and Critical Legal Studies' deconstructionism.) From this comparative analysis the theologian and the legal theorist can learn vitally important lessons for their own professional endeavors.