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The Word and the Law

Milner Ball takes an experimental journey into the inner life of law and the careers of men and women who use it to help disadvantaged people and to strengthen the fabric of the communities in which they live. At the center of this book are portraits of seven contemporary legal practitioners—lawyers, judges, and advocates—who have devoted their lives to an unconventional vision of the law. In their work, in areas from New York City housing court to the Warm Springs reservation in Oregon, the law exemplifies fundamental human values, manifestations of what Ball calls the "Word," the presence of God in life. To develop this concept of the Word, Ball explores its workings in familiar literary and biblical texts, primarily William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, Toni Morrison’s Beloved, the Book of Isaiah, and the Gospel of Mark.

224 pages | 6 x 9 | © 1993

Law and Legal Studies: General Legal Studies, Legal Thought

Religion: Philosophy of Religion, Theology, and Ethics

Table of Contents

Introduction
1: Seven Practices in Law
2: Dilsey, Baby Suggs, and the Nonreligious Word
3: What of Ethics, Faith, Christian Religion?
4: Mark, Isaiah, and the Empty Place
5: Aesthetic Meaning and Political Freedom
6: Morbidity and Viability in Law
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

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