Rev. Vigo Auguste Demant (1893-1983) was a significant theologian and social commentator of the first half of the twentieth century. This book contains his up-until-now unpublished Gifford Lectures, in which Demant provides cultural analysis as he attempts to address why humanity struggles so much with modernity and living in the contemporary world. The lectures have additional notes and commentary to make them comprehensible, since not all of them are complete. The first chapters set Demant in his context and the final section provides assessment of both his ideas and his impact. Although Demant died in 1983, his ideas continue to prove influential to thinkers and theologians today.

The late Susan Moller Okin was a leading political theorist whose scholarship integrated political philosophy and issues of gender, the family, and culture. Okin argued that liberalism, properly understood as a theory opposed to social hierarchies and supportive of individual freedom and equality, provided the tools for criticizing the substantial and systematic inequalities between men and women. Her thought was deeply informed by a feminist view that theories of justice must apply equally to women as men, and she was deeply engaged in showing how many past and present political theories failed to do this. She sought to rehabilitate political theories--particularly that of liberal egalitarianism, in such a way as to accommodate the equality of the sexes, and with an eye toward improving the condition of women and families in a world of massive gender inequalities. In her lifetime Okin was widely respected as a scholar whose engagement went well beyond the world of theory, and her premature death in 2004 was considered by many a major blow to progressive political thought and women's interests around the world. This volume stems from a conference on Okin, and contains articles by some of the top feminist and political philosophers working today. They are organized around a set of themes central to Okin's work, namely liberal theory, gender and the family, feminist and cultural differences, and global justice. Included are major figures such as Joshua Cohen, David Miller, Cass Sunstein, Alison Jaggar, and Iris Marion Young, among others. Their aim is not to celebrate Okin's work, but to constructively engage with it and further its goals.

Richard Cumberland and Natural Law represents the first major biographical sketch of Cumberland to appear in English. A critic and antagonist of Thomas Hobbes, a proto-Utilitarian and a man of the cloth, Richard Cumberland may be England’s least recognised seventeenth century polymath, often overshadowed by the likes of John Bramhall and John Wallis. His magnum opus, De Legibus Naturae (On Natural Laws) stands in quality amongst the greatest works of natural philosophy and ethics of his time period. Here Kirk outlines Cumberland’s significant philosophical contributions as well as situating him in his intellectual and historical context. She describes his life, his work as Bishop of Peterborough, and his pioneering contributions to natural law theory. Kirk also includes a chapter on the various editions of Cumberland’s masterwork and the praise it received from his contemporaries. Richard Cumberland and Natural Law remains the foremost collection of biographical information of Richard Cumberland, as well as offering a comprehensive discussion of his theories.

Natural Law: Morality and Obedience This short opus is part of a collection of a larger body of work, which are dedicated to the subject of law or legal obligation. This installment focuses on natural law. The goal here is to elucidate the essentiality of citizen obedience. Another goal here is to make the case that, while in theory the notion of natural law seems to contradict the concept known as positive law, when it comes to legal obligation (in practice of course), any distinction, if it were to exist at all, is negligible. This text examines the degree to which natural law (as presently understood) could explicate the reason people may feel obligated to obey laws. The book further explores the rationale for legal obedience in terms of morality and reason. It examines popular legal precepts, notably positive law and other doctrines related to natural law. The arguments echoed throughout the text are unique. But it is important to point out that a full appreciation of the notion of Natural Law may require some anterior understanding about the concept of Legal Theory. I encourage you to keep a positive outlook as you navigate the manuscript.

Available as a single volume or as part of the 10 volume set Supreme Court in American Society

Modern society is riven by social divisions: between conservatives and progressives; liberals and socialists; the mainstream and the rise of far-right political groups etc. Instead of truth, there are ‘post-truth’ and ‘alternative facts’. In the wake of problems caused by untruthful politicians and world leaders, by Brexit and Covid, the need to repair or rebuild our communities has become paramount, but what kind of community should we build, and on what foundations? This book suggests that natural law is such a foundation. Natural Law and Modern Society presents a new theory of natural law, grounded in the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas, aimed at answering questions relevant to the world of today: from the nature of morality and ethics to the theory of law, obligation and political authority; from the domestic realm to international community. It seeks to elicit from the natural law tradition timeless truths concerning the human condition, in particular the social and political dimensions to human existence. This mode of existence, it argues, is not a problem to be resolved through some permutation of political institutions, but a predicament to be managed. At the heart of the book is the identification of a 'core morality': a set of moral requirements that are foundational to every society at all places and times, as distinct from those standards that are particular to this or that society at some time.