Saturday, February 11, 2012

Protestant Constitutionalism Versus Catholic Constitutionalism

The concept of Protestant Constitutionalism is due to Sanford Levinson writing in his 1988 book Constitutional Faith, in which he distinguishes it--lo and behold--from Catholic Constitutionalism as described by Jack Balkin:
Constitutional catholicism stands for the view that a certain group of professional or learned authorities has the last word on interpretation, while protestantism, as we have seen, invites all believers to offer their views on the meaning of scripture. Sandy gives both positions their due, but he is essentially a constitutional protestant. Just as protestant believers must figure out what the Bible means for themselves in order to achieve salvation, so too individual members of the political community must decide for themselves what the Constitution means in order to go forward with the constitutional project.
Read More about this here.

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