title: Political Agape: Christian Love and Liberal Democracy (Emory University Studies in Law and Religion)
author: Timothy P. Jackson
description: <DIV><B><I>Journal of Church and State</I></B><BR /> &quot;A richly textured and engaging work that locates discussions of the inter-relationship between love and justice within the field of Christian ethics in a wider and important set of conversations.&quot;<BR /><BR /><B><I>Theology</I></B><BR /> &quot;The idea that &#39;some politically relevant truths can only be grasped in religiously sonorous terms&#39; swims against the present tide but it is a powerful one. Reading it in a book that attempts to throw out liberal democracy&#39;s dirty bathwater without simultaneously abandoning its precious cargo, is a profitable exercise.&quot;<BR /><BR /><B>Nicholas Wolterstorff</B><BR /> &mdash; author of&#160;<I>Justice in Love</I>&#160;and&#160;<I>Justice: Rights and Wrongs</I><BR /> &quot;This book by Timothy Jackson has the paramount virtue of inviting and provoking the reader to think deeply about issues of fundamental importance &mdash; in particular, about the proper role of agapic love in our lives as citizens. .&#160;.&#160;. Also invites and provokes us to think deeply about some of the major figures in our intellectual and political tradition, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. among them. Altogether an important defense of the thesis that prophetic Christianity is of fundamental importance for liberal democracies.&quot;<BR /><BR /><B>Robin W. Lovin</B><BR /> &mdash; author of&#160;<I>Introduction to Christian Ethics: Goals, Duties, and Virtues</I><BR /> &quot;Treats the relationship between Christian love and liberal democracy in a way that reaches deeper into history and theology than most discussions of liberal theory. Jackson offers us a valuable survey of recent Christian ethics, an original constructive proposal, and detailed analysis of questions about life, death, marriage, and family &mdash; questions that demand theological attention today.&quot;<BR /><BR /><B>Jeffrey Stout</B><BR /> &mdash; author of&#160;<I>Blessed Are the Organized: Grassroots Democracy in America</I><BR /> &quot;Here is a baker&#39;s dozen of learned, rigorous, elegant essays on what Christian love implies for our understanding of liberal democracy. .&#160;.&#160;. The chapters on sanctity and dignity and the concluding reflections on Martin Luther King Jr. are among the best things ever written on those topics.&quot;</DIV>
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  EMORY UNIVERSITY STUDIES IN LAW AND RELIGION
  
  
  _John Witte Jr., General Editor_
  
  
  This series fosters exploration of the religious dimensions of law, the legal
  dimensions of religion, and the interaction of legal and religious ideas,
  institutions, and methods. Written by leading scholars of law, political
  science, and related fields, these volumes will help meet the growing demand
  for literature in the burgeoning interdisciplinary study of law and religion.
  
  
  RECENTLY PUBLISHED
  
  
  W. Bradford Littlejohn, _The Peril and Promise of Christian Liberty: Richard
  Hooker, the Puritans, and Protestant Political Theology_
  
  
  Timothy P. Jackson, _Political Agape: Christian Love and Liberal Democracy_
  
  
  Ira C. Lupu and Robert W. Tuttle, _Secular Government, Religious People_
  
  
  David VanDrunen, _Divine Covenants and Moral Order: A Biblical Theology of
  Natural Law_
  
  
  A. G. Roeber, _Hopes for Better Spouses: Protestant Marriage and Church
  Renewal in Early Modern Europe, India, and Nor