John Witte Jr. is a Canadian-American academic. He is a Robert W. Woodruff University Professor[1] and a McDonald Distinguished Professor at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia, and is director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion[2] there.[3]
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He is series editor of the Emory University Studies in Law and Religion[4] by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, and general editor of the Law and Christianity Series[5] published by Cambridge University Press. In 2022, he delivered the Gifford Lectures on A New Calvinist Reformation of Rights at the University of Aberdeen.[6]
Witte received a BA from Calvin College in 1982, and a JD from Harvard Law School in 1985.[3]
As author:
- Law and Protestantism: The Legal Teachings of the Lutheran Reformation (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
- Sex, Marriage and Family in John Calvin’s Geneva I: Courtship, Engagement and Marriage (with Robert M. Kingdon) (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005)
- God's Joust, God's Justice: Law and Religion in the Western Tradition (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2006)
- The Reformation of Rights: Law, Religion, and Human Rights in Early Modern Calvinism (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
- The Sins of the Fathers: The Law and Theology of Illegitimacy Reconsidered (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
- Christianity and Human Rights: An Introduction (with Frank Alexander) (Cambridge University Press, 2010)
- No Establishment of Religion: America’s Original Contribution to Religious Liberty (with T. Jeremy Gunn) Oxford University Press, 2012)
- Religion and Human Rights: An Introduction (with M. Christian Green) (Oxford University Press, 2012)
- From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition, 2nd ed. (Westminster John Knox Press, 2012)
- The Western Case for Monogamy Over Polygamy (Cambridge University Press, 2015)
- Church, State, and Family: Reconciling Traditional Teachings and Modern Liberties (Cambridge University Press, 2019)
- Faith, Freedom, and Family: New Studies in Law and Religion (Mohr Siebeck, 2021) (edited by Norman Doe and Gary S. Hauk)
- The Blessings of Liberty: Human Rights and Religious Freedom in the Western Legal Tradition (Cambridge University Press, 2021)
- Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment, 5th ed. (with Joel A. Nichols and Richard W. Garnett) (Oxford University Press, 2022)
- In Defense of the Marital Family (Brill, 2023)
- Raíces protestantes del Derecho (Thomson Reuters Aranzadi, 2023)
- Table Talk: Short Talks on the Weightier Matters of Law and Religion (Brill, 2023) (Open Access)
- Le origini e il futuro della libertà religiosa in Europa e negli Stati Uniti (Milan/Bologna: Il Mulino, 2024) (with Andrea Pin)
As editor:
- Herman Dooyeweerd, A Christian Theory of Social Institutions (Magnus Verbrugge, trans.) (Paideia Press, 1986)
- Christianity and Democracy in Global Context (Westview Press, 1993)
- Harold J. Berman, Law and Language: Effective Symbols of Community (Cambridge University Press, 2013)
As co-editor:
- The Weightier Matters of the Law: Essays on Law and Religion (with Frank S. Alexander) (American Academy of Religion Studies in Religion Series, 1988)
- Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Legal Perspectives (with Johan D. van der Vyver) (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1996)
- Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Religious Perspectives (with Johan D. van der Vyver) (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1996)
- Human Rights in Judaism: Cultural, Religious and Political Perspectives (with Michael J. Broyde) (Jason Aronson Publishers, 1998)
- Sharing the Book: Religious Perspectives on the Rights and Wrongs of Proselytism (with Richard C. Martin) (Orbis Books, 1999)
- Covenant Marriage in Comparative Perspective (with Eliza Ellison) (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2005)
- Family Transformed: Religion, Values, and Family Life in Interdisciplinary Perspective (with Steven M. Tipton) (Georgetown University Press, 2005)
- Sex, Marriage, and Family in the World Religions (with Don S. Browning and M. Christian Green) (Columbia University Press, 2006)
- The Teachings of Modern Protestantism on Law, Politics and Human Nature (with Frank S. Alexander) (Columbia University Press, 2007)
- The Teachings of Modern Roman Catholicism on Law, Politics and Human Nature (with Frank S. Alexander) (Columbia University Press, 2007)
- The Equal Regard Family and Its Friendly Critics (with M. Christian Green and Amy Wheeler) (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2007)
- To Have and to Hold: Marrying and its Documentation in Western Christendom, 400-1600 (with Philip L. Reynolds) (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
- The Teachings of Modern Orthodox Christianity on Law, Politics and Human Nature (with Frank S. Alexander) (Columbia University Press, 2007)
- Proselytism and Orthodoxy in Russia: The New War for Souls (with Michael Bourdeaux) (Orbis Books, 1999; repr. ed. Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2009)
- Christianity and Law: An Introduction (with Frank S. Alexander) (Cambridge University Press, 2008)
- Texts and Contexts in Legal History: Essays in Honour of Charles Donahue (with Sara McDougall and Anna di Robilant) (Robbins Collection, 2016)
- Christianity and Family Law: An Introduction (with Gary S. Hauk) (Cambridge University Press, 2017)
- The Protestant Reformation of the Church and the World (with Amy Wheeler) (Westminster John Knox Press, 2018)
- Christianity and Global Law (with Rafael Domingo Osle) (Routledge, 2020)
- Great Christian Jurists in German History (with Mathias Schmoeckel) (Mohr Siebeck, 2020)
- Christianity and Criminal Law (with Mark Hill, Norman Doe and R. H. Helmholtz) (Routledge and CRC Press, 2020)
- The Impact Series on Character Formation, Ethical Education, and the Communication of Values in Late Modern Pluralistic Societies, 10 volumes (with Michael Welker and others) (Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2020-23)
- The Oxford Handbook of Christianity and Law (with Rafael Domingo) (Oxford University Press, 2023)
Witte is married to Eliza Ellison, a theologian and mediator. They have two daughters and five grandchildren.[3]
