Witte, John 1959- (John Witte, Jr.)

PERSONAL:

Born August 14, 1959, in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada; son of John and Gertie van Harten Witte; married Eliza Ellison, November 18, 1995; children: Hope, Alison. Education: Calvin College, B.A., 1982; Harvard Law School, J.D., 1985.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Emory Law School, 1301 Clifton Rd., Atlanta, GA 30322; fax: 404-712-8605. E-mail—jwitte@law.emory.edu.

CAREER:

Academic and legal scholar. Admitted to State Bar of Georgia, 1986; Emory Law School, Atlanta, GA, assistant professor, 1989-91, associate professor, 1991-93, Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law, 1993—, director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Religion and Law and Religion Program. Pew Charitable Trusts Project on Christianity and Democracy, Law, and Religion Program, director, 1989-95; Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, Max Rheinstein fellow, 1995; Ford Foundation Project on Cultural Transformation in Africa: Legal, Religious, and Human Rights Dimensions, codirector, 1995-98; Pew Charitable Trusts Project on the Problem of Proselytizing, director, 1995-99; Lilly Endowment Project on Law, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition, director, 1999—; Pew/Notre Dame Project on Law and Human Nature: The Teachings of Modern Christianity, codirector, 2001-04; McDonald Foundation Project on Christian Jurisprudence in the 21st Century, codirector, 2004—; McDonald Foundation Project on the Foundations of Religious Liberty and Rule of Law, director, 2007—.

MEMBER:

American Bar Association, Society of Christian Ethics.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Recipient of numerous grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts, Ford Foundation, Lilly Endowment, Alonzo L. McDonald Family Foundation, John Templeton Foundation, and Henry Luce Foundation; most outstanding professor, Student Bar Association, Emory University, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1997-98, 1998-99, 1999-2000, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2004-05, 2007-08; Emory University Scholar/Teacher Award, 1994; most outstanding educator, United Methodist Foundation for Christian Higher Education, 1994; professor of the year, Black Law Students Association, Emory University, 1997-98; Abraham Kuyper Prize, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1999, for excellence in theology and public life; Distinguished Faculty Award, Emory University, 2001; Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award, Emory University, 2002; Crystal Apple Award, 2007, for excellence in professional school teaching; National Religious Freedom Award, Council for America's First Freedom, 2008.

WRITINGS:

(Editor and author of introduction) Herman Dooyeweerd, A Christian Theory of Social Institutions, translated by Magnus Verbrugge, Herman Dooyeweerd Foundation (La Jolla, CA), 1986.

(Editor, with Frank S. Alexander) The Weightier Matters of the Law: Essays on Law and Religion: A Tribute to Harold J. Berman, Scholars Press (Atlanta, GA), 1988.

(Editor, with Johan D. van der Vyver) Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Legal Perspectives, M. Nijhoff (Boston, MA), 1996.

From Sacrament to Contract: Marriage, Religion, and Law in the Western Tradition, Westminster John Knox Press (Louisville, KY), 1997.

(Editor, with Michael J. Broyde) Human Rights in Judaism: Cultural, Religious, and Political Perspectives, J. Aronson (Northvale, NJ), 1998.

(Editor, with Michael Bourdeaux) Proselytism and Orthodoxy in Russia: The New War for Souls, Orbis Books (Maryknoll, NY), 1999.

(Author of foreword) John E. Coons and Patrick M. Brennan, By Nature Equal: The Anatomy of a Western Insight, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1999.

(Editor, with Richard C. Martin) Sharing the Book: Religious Perspectives on the Rights and Wrongs of Proselytism, Orbis Books (Maryknoll, NY), 1999.

Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment: Essential Rights and Liberties, Westview Press (Boulder, CO), 2000, 2nd edition, 2004.

Law and Protestantism: The Legal Teachings of the Lutheran Reformation, foreword by Martin E. Marty, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Eliza Ellison) Covenant Marriage in Comparative Perspective, W.B. Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 2005.

(Editor, with Frank S. Alexander) The Teachings of Modern Christianity: Human Nature, Politics, and Law, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

(Editor, with Steven M. Tipton) Family Transformed: Religion, Values, and Society in American Life, Georgetown University Press (Washington, DC), 2005.

(With Robert M. Kingdon) Sex, Marriage, and Family in John Calvin's Geneva, W.B. Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 2005.

(Editor, with Frank S. Alexander) The Teachings of Modern Christianity on Law, Politics, and Human Nature, two volumes, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

God's Joust, God's Justice: Law and Religion in the Western Tradition, William B. Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 2006.

(Editor, with Don S. Browning and M. Christian Green) Sex, Marriage, and Family in World Religions, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

(Editor, with M. Christian Green and Amy Wheeler) The Equal-regard Family and Its Friendly Critics: Don Browning and the Practical Theological Ethics of the Family, William B. Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 2007.

(Editor, with Frank S. Alexander) The Teachings of Modern Roman Catholicism on Law, Politics, and Human Nature, introduction by Russell Hittinger, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2007.

The Reformation of Rights: Law, Religion and Human Rights in Early Modern Calvinism, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2007.

(Editor, with Philip L. Reynolds) To Have and to Hold: Marrying and Its Documentation in Western Christendom, 400-1600, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2007.

(Editor, with Frank S. Alexander) The Teachings of Modern Protestantism on Law, Politics, and Human Nature, introduction by Mark A. Noll, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2007.

(Editor, with Frank S. Alexander) The Teachings of Modern Orthodox Christianity on Law, Politics, and Human Nature, introduction by Paul Valliere, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 2007.

Editor of Emory International Law Review, Coscienza e Liberta, Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Emory University Studies in Law and Religion, and Emory Law Journal. Contributor to periodicals and journals, including Calvin Theological Journal, Columbia Human Rights Law Review, Emory International Law Review, Journal of Church & State, Journal of Law & Religion, Michigan Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Southern California Law Review, Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung, and Emory Law Journal.

SIDELIGHTS:

John Witte is a Canadian academic and legal scholar. Born in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, on August 14, 1959, he completed a bachelor of arts degree from Calvin College in 1982. By 1985 Witte had earned a juris doctorate, and he was admitted to the State Bar of Georgia the following year. He began working at Atlanta's Emory Law School in 1989 as an assistant professor of law. In 1991 he was promoted to associate professor of law. By 1993 Witte was named the Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law. At Emory, he also served as director of both the Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Religion as well as the Law and Religion Program.

Witte has held a number of other positions outside of Emory University. From 1989 to 1992 he was the director of the Pew Charitable Trusts Project on Christianity and Democracy, Law, and Religion Program. Then he served as director until 1995 of the Pew Charitable Trusts Project on Religious Human Rights, Law and Religion Program. At that point he served in 1995 as the Max Rheinstein fellow at Bonn, Germany's Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung. From 1995 to 1996 he was the codirector of the Ford Foundation Project on Cultural Transformation in Africa: Legal, Religious, and Human Rights Dimensions. From 1995 to 1999 he was also the director of the Pew Charitable Trusts Project on the Problem of Proselytizing. In 1999 Witte began a long tenure serving as director of the Lilly Endowment Project on Law, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition. From 2001 to 2004 he served as the codirector for the Pew/Notre Dame Project on Law and Human Nature: The Teachings of Modern Christianity. Since 2004 Witte has worked as the codirector for the McDonald Foundation Project on Christian Jurisprudence in the 21st Century. And since 2007 he has served as the director of McDonald Foundation Project on the Foundations of Religious Liberty and Rule of Law.

Witte has received numerous grants for his research, including from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Ford Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, the Alonzo L. McDonald Family Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, and the Henry Luce Foundation. He has also been recognized by his students on numerous occasions, including being repeatedly named most outstanding professor by Emory University's Student Bar Association. He received an Emory University Scholar/Teacher Award in 1994 and was named most outstanding educator by the United Methodist Foundation for Christian Higher Education that same year. In the 1997-98 school year, he was named professor of the year by Emory University's Black Law Students Association. In 1999 he received the Abraham Kuyper Prize from the Princeton Theological Seminary for excellence in theology and public life. In 2001 he was given the Distinguished Faculty Award by Emory University and won the Distinguished Teaching Award the following year from the university. In 2007 he received the Crystal Apple Award for excellence in professional school teaching and the National Religious Freedom Award from the Council for America's First Freedom the following year.

With Michael Bourdeaux, Witte edited Proselytism and Orthodoxy in Russia: The New War for Souls in 1999. The book covers Russian Christian Orthodoxy and its scope around the country and the world.

A critic writing in First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life found the book to be a "worthy" contribution to scholarship in the field. The same critic highlighted the essay by James H. Billington concerning what Western Christians receive from the vitality of Orthodoxy in Russia, singling it out as being "especially noteworthy."

In 2005 Witte published Sex, Marriage, and Family in John Calvin's Geneva with Robert M. Kingdon. The book explores the reforms taken by Calvinists in the areas of marriage, sex, and family life through practical and theoretical bases.

Mark Noll, reviewing the book in Christianity Today, called the book "a real gift" and "a boon for historians." Noll labeled Witte as "one of the great legal scholars of our generation."

That same year, Witte edited Family Transformed: Religion, Values, and Society in American Life with Steven M. Tipton. The collection of essays takes an interdisciplinary approach to looking at the evolution of the concept of family and marriage around the world and proposes a handful of solutions for the new problems they pose.

Florence Caffrey Bourg, writing in Theological Studies, observed that the account offers "food for thought," particularly for social ethicists. Bourg stated that Family Transformed "proposes general initiatives to redress family breakdown," summarizing that "while helpful, these initiatives need consideration of more specific remedies, perhaps via interdisciplinary, international documentation of ‘best practices.’"

In 2006 Witte published God's Joust, God's Justice: Law and Religion in the Western Tradition. The book covers American history and the evolution of the American family, human rights issues, and the development of Western thought on religion and law since the Reformation. Witte also looks into the clash of eastern and western branches of Christianity on the issues of liberty and religion.

John Kelsay, reviewing the book in Church History, stated: "I confess to some unclarity, with respect to what Witte's historical studies reveal regarding the knowledge of God." Nevertheless, Kelsay concluded that "with respect to a more Troeltschian notion, by which such studies serve in the identification and evaluation of competing ways of ordering life, however, Witte's studies show us a great deal." Curt A. Portzel, reviewing the account in the Journal of Church and State, commented that "Witte displays his formative knowledge of law, theology, history, and philosophy" in this book, adding that he "is a gifted scholar and writer who excels at analyzing and synthesizing a copious amount of original and secondary material and then re-articulating that material in an easy to understand and helpful framework." Portzel criticized that the book "contains little original material" but suggested that many readers "will find this volume a valuable addition to their library." In an article in the Christian Century, Robin Lovin recognized that "there is much in this volume" for lawyers, political activists, and clergymen to discuss.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Directory of American Scholars, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2002.

PERIODICALS

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, May 1, 2000, C. Barner-Barry, review of Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment: Essential Rights and Liberties, p. 1723; May 1, 2006, C.H. Lippy, review of Family Transformed: Religion, Values, and Society in American Life, p. 1617; October 1, 2006, E.M. Wengler, review of Sex, Marriage, and Family in John Calvin's Geneva, p. 367.

Christian Century, May 1, 2007, Robin Lovin, review of God's Joust, God's Justice: Law and Religion in the Western Tradition, p. 24.

Christianity Today, April 1, 2006, Mark Noll, review of Sex, Marriage, and Family in John Calvin's Geneva, p. 104.

Church History, September 1, 2007, Christopher Ocker, "Sex, Marriage, and Fin John Calvin's Geneva. Volume 1. Courtship, Engagement, and Marriage," p. 624; December 1, 2007, John Kelsay, review of God's Joust, God's Justice, p. 887.

First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, December 1, 1999, review of Proselytism and Orthodoxy in Russia: The New War for Souls, p. 67.

Interpretation, July 1, 1998, review of From Sacrament to Contract, p. 334.

Journal of Church and State, summer, 2007, Curt A. Portzel, review of God's Joust, God's Justice, p. 556.

Medieval Review, October 1, 2007, Margaret McGlynn, review of To Have and to Hold: Marrying and Its Documentation in Western Christendom, 400-1600.

Reference & Research Book News, February 1, 1997, review of Religious Human Rights in Global Perspective: Legal Perspectives, p. 63; February 1, 2000, review of Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment, p. 125; February 1, 2006, review of Sex, Marriage, and Family in John Calvin's Geneva; May 1, 2007, review of God's Joust, God's Justice.

Theological Studies, June 1, 2007, Florence Caffrey Bourg, review of Family Transformed, p. 477.

Theology Today, April 1, 1998, review of From Sacrament to Contract, p. 77.

ONLINE

Emory Law School Web site,http://www.law.emory.edu/ (July 12, 2008), author profile.