Do Muslims Understand 2k Better than Christians?

Published on by D. G. Hart

Prelaw, a publication of the National Jurist, which seems to be a Chamber-of-Commerce-like magazine for the law school industry, recently ranked the best religious law schools for the U.S. In some ways, the lists were unsurprising (even if a tad humorous):

Most Devout Roman Catholic Schools
Ave Maria School of Law
University of St. Thomas – Minnesota
St. Johns University
Catholic University
Fordham University

Most Devout Christian Schools (other than Roman Catholic)
Liberty University
Trinity Law School
Regent University
Pepperdine University
Baylor University

Most Devout Mormon Schools
Brigham Young University
Creighton University
Gonzaga University
George Washington University
University of Utah

Most Devout Jewish Schools
Cardozo School of Law
Touro College Law Center
Emory University
American University
George Washington University

Most Devout Muslim Schools — wait for it
UCLA
Michigan State University
George Washington University
University of Michigan
Yale University

A couple of odd things stand out, aside from GWU being the most religion friendly of all (since it shows up twice). First, why are two Roman Catholic law schools particularly hospitable to Mormons (Gonzaga and Creighton)?

Second, and more importantly, if UCLA, MSU, GWU, UofM, and Yale are good enough for Muslims, why not for evangelical Protestants? Is it really the case that those five schools are particularly friendly to Sharia law or could it be that Muslims in America can figure out how to obtain an education suitable for work in a secular society without needing that institutions offer devotional pick-me-ups on the side?

27 thoughts on “Do Muslims Understand 2k Better than Christians?”

  1. Muslims may well understand a pilgrim mentality better, but as far as I understand it, the mandate from the later Surahs (overriding earlier Surahs) is to conquer and impose Sharia.

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  3. Creighton Law has a prominent LDS professor who actively (and successfully) recruits a lot of LDS students to the school. I think that’s the extent of its Mormon devotion.

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  4. The purpose of a good law school is not as much to convey information as it is to brainwash its students into thinking lawyerly. The student begins by thinking like anyone else, progresses to win more arguments against his/her spouse, and comes out with a mind that detects legal issues, argues both sides in his head, and formulates coherent arguments. Accordingly I don’t see religion having a impact on the essence of the legal education.

    But it’s not bad to have some companionship along the way. If the Christian Legal Society did nothing else, it at least facilitated relationships among those of a Christian bent. And there are certainly side comments and an atmosphere created by students and faculty – that kind of thing could be more or less friendly to religion. But more than anything it was important to be in a church during those years.

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  5. I’m straining to see why anyone would care about a religiously supportive law school environment any more than they would desire a religiously supportive barber college. Most law schools are somewhat more intellectually pretentious now than when I went decades ago, but that is a function of there being more pressure on faculty to publish. Even with that, law schools are still trade schools. I don’t want to go back through old posts and com boxes, but didn’t our host mention something about there being Christian Goatbreeders guilds during Holland’s Kuyperian phase?

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  9. In my professional opinion as headhunter for lawyers, these ratings border on the moronic. It’s true that

    Ave Maria School of Law
    University of St. Thomas – Minnesota

    are very Catholic and

    Liberty University
    Trinity Law School
    Regent University

    are evangelical, so much so that all of the above are looked down upon as less-than-legit by the legal profession. However, the rest of the list–even BYU [!]–don’t even raise a secular eyebrow.

    And FTR, Georgetown is putatively Catholic, not that anyone knows or cares

    http://abovethelaw.com/2012/06/whats-everyones-favorite-slut-up-to-these-days-an-update-on-georgetown-law-grad-sandra-fluke/

    especially its students.

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  10. From my mum:

    D.G. Hart has the feature article in this month’s New Horizons. The title is “Evangelicals, Confessional Presbyterians, and the Church.” Just got it today.

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  11. Yer honor, let the record reflect that TVD talked about something he knows.

    See I could represent TVD even. But I’d need some whiskey to dull the inner voice.

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  14. Charter, from your mum? So you must also have a bum if you’re doing the English thing. But don’t rhyme them in poetry.

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  15. Andrew, you’re a good bloke but where’d you find the catnip? I’m getting bollocksed by your running around OL that way. (Take that, Charter)

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  18. PS Muddy,

    When a Roman Catholic Priest on imputation and paradigms at CtC rejects my espressing myself and my joy (see his comment after mine) (although he may have a point about my isogesis exegesis, I’m not properly housebroken seminary trained, truth be told), well, let’s just say: That’s the cats meow that I need to pull out my tablet, just for fun.

    I say listen to sober educated folk, not the attack dogs. Priests with Twitter accounts are guys I tend to follow, though not for the reasons they think.

    Fetch that golf ball, boy!

    Cheers..

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  21. Totally agree with MLM. My years in law school were made sane and balanced by attendance at a good church (Tenth Presbyterian, Philadelphia) and reading P.G. Wodehouse.

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  27. But what if you are not Sunni? Do all the Shiites have Sunni lawyers? Or is one infallible imam or ayatollah enough?

    Or is it the relative lack of religious mediation in the Sunni understanding that which makes Sunnis need to frequent attorneys?

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