The Law of Love as Principles of Civility: Secular Translation or Religious Contribution?

This paper proposes that the law of love provides a theological framework for the principles of civility, which consist of the civic virtues and moral engagement exhibited by citizens debating controversial policy issues and law reform in a liberal democracy. The principles of civility include virtues such as honesty, humility and graciously listening to and attempting to understand alternative points of view during an argument. Moral engagement involves practicing these virtues through political advocacy in the process of a deeper consideration of what justice or the common good requires. Drawing on John Milbank and the Parable of the Good Samaritan, I argue that is only through Christian conceptions of what it means to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ that the civic virtues and their transcendent foundation can properly inform public debate. The civic virtues are inherited from Christianity and find their culmination in the law of love as paradigmatically displayed through Christ, pointing to their eternal nature. The consequence of this argument is that any Habermasian attempt to translate the law of love into a merely secular principle will fundamentally limit its effect; the full benefit of the law of love for a legal community comes through its uniquely religious origin