The Forest and the Trees: What Educational Purposes Can A Course on Christian Legal Thought Serve?

(Excerpt) In this short essay, I want to consider the educational purposes a course in Christian legal thought might serve. How could having such a course in the curriculum help accomplish the goals of legal education? One can understand why a law school with a Christian identity would want to offer this sort of course. Such law schools embrace a theology that helps adherents make sense of the world, including the world of human law.

The less obvious question I want to consider is why a law school that does not subscribe to a particular theological understanding of the world (or that subscribes to a theological understanding grounded in some other set of religious beliefs) might find a course on Christian legal thought educationally beneficial for its students.