Truth, Justice, & Pluralism at FLAG 2013

Last month, I was privileged to be a part of the "Faith and Law Around the Globe" conference and convocation in Hong Kong. There were more than 150 lawyers and a good handful of law students in attendance from more than 30 countries, including Egypt, South Korea, Australia, Moldova, and the United States.

Thanks to the work of Cru's General Counsel's office, which planned and executed the conference, the conference was a great success. Both Advocates International and the faculty of law at the University of Hong Kong participated in providing programming.

In addition to my role as the emcee of the conference, I was invited to present a short paper at the academic conference at the University of Hong Kong University, "In Quest of Truth of Justice: The Role of Law and Religion in Pluralist Societies."  Thanks to Professor Benny Tai for the kind invitation and the excellent panels.  I hope to lay out some of the content of my presentation and the rest of the panels over the next few weeks, and I'll start today with an overview of my presentation on "Truth, Justice, and Pluralism."

By way of overview, here are the five propositions around which the argument of my paper was was built:

1. We are mistaken if we believe that "pluralism" means that there is such a thing as a purely secular society, where religious neutrality reigns.

2. Second, human beings ought to be free to pursue what is good, unhindered by state-sponsored barriers. This assumes that "plural"-- and sometimes conflicting-- visions of the Good will and must co-exist and interact in any given society.

3. Jesus is King over the whole world, even in the realm of public law and civil justice in every society.

4. Human justice is partial in a fallen world.

5. Finally, a robust public justice is not possible without the Church alongside the state, proclaiming truth.

I'll flesh these out, and comment on some of the other ideas presented in the panels, over the next few days.