Clashing Worldviews in the U.S. Supreme Court: Rehnquist vs. Blackmun

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Description

Contrasting two Protestant justices who hold distinctively different worldviews, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Harry A. Blackmun, this book explores how each came to hold his worldview, how each applied it in Supreme Court rulings, and how it led them to differing outcomes for liberty, equality, and justice. This clash of worldviews between Rehnquist, whose religious and philosophical influences were anchored in the Reformation, and Blackmun, whose Reformation theology was modified by Enlightenment philosophy, provide the context to examine the true nature of justice, liberty, and equality and to consider how such ideals can be maintained in a society with increasingly divergent worldviews.

Reviews

Jim Davids, Erik Gustafson, and Sherena Arrington have written an important book about how individual worldviews shape not only Supreme Court justices, but all of us. To their credit, these evangelical Protestants with an impulse toward orthodoxy reached out to me, a mainline pastor with an impulse toward progressivism to offer an endorsement. As I read their thoughtful analysis of how the jurisprudence of Rehnquist and Blackmun captures the essential divides in the Americans culture wars, I was also reminded that until we do the hard work of understanding and respecting one another, we are lost. -- Rev. Robin R. Meyers, professor emeritus, Oklahoma City University and author of Saving God from Religion: A Minister's Search for Faith in a Skeptical Age

Author Bio

Jim Davids is a practicing attorney in Virginia and former professor of constitutional law.



Erik Gustafson is adjunct professor at Lake Michigan College and senior pastor at Lake Michigan Christian Center.



Sherena Arrington is a political and public policy consultant in Georgia.