Theology for International Law - by Esther D Reed (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Whilst Christian theology is familiar with questions about the relation of church and state, divine and human law, little attention has been devoted to questions of international law. Esther D. Reed offers a systematic engagement with contemporary issues of international law and its relevance for modern theology. Reed discusses numerous issue driven topics, including: challenges to classic just-war thinking from so-called fourth generation warfare, peoples and nationhood within divine providence, the ethics of territorial borders and the militarization of human intervention. By discussing selected biblical texts Reed helps to move the issues of international law higher up the agenda of Christian theology, ethics and moral reasoning.

Review Quotes

Esther Reed's book, unusually lucid in a field where obscurity is often used to stake a claim to authority, should be read by all those who want a powerful, well-informed and essentially optimistic Christian voice discussing such deeply perplexing challenges and developments of human self-ordering in the twenty-first century.
The Tablet

If public theology is a difficult task, it is even more daunting when directly engaging some of the most intractable dilemmas in international affairs such as torture, the 'war on terror, ' human rights and humanitarian intervention. Esther D. Reed has taken up this challenge and written a tightly reasoned, theologically sophisticated, and politically savvy volume that respectfully acknowledges the ambiguous but neccessary realities of law, national interest and the use of lethal force without sacrificing central gospel commitments such as care for the poor and love of the 'other'.
Modern Believing 56:1

This is a powerfully argued book that clears a lot of ideological ground and, one can only hope, generates new interest in the role of legal sources and norms in moral theology.
Theological Book Review

About the Author

Esther D. Reed is Associate Professor of Theological Ethics and Director of the Network for Religion in Public Life at the University of Exeter, UK.