The Religious Dimension Of The Western Law

This article selected three scenarios in the development of Western society to discuss the relationship between the law and the religion. As faith began to play a role in early humans, it encourages the emergence of religion. After the birth of religion, it has been playing a guiding spirit of the role of human beings, and has not declined with the development and expansion of law. Although the law has autonomy, it needs the support of the human spirits, so the law requires not only a rational being, but also the power of human faith. In the system and in spirit, religion is affecting the Western society.Traditional religious ideology and rituals contain legal thoughts and practices of legal proceedings.Natural law is an ancient thought of human thinking about the law, which contains both the human reason and the pursuit for noble values. Natural law has great vitality as it was born, but we must not ignore the active role of religion in the development of natural law ideas. Even in the Middle Ages, when religious forces were extremely powerful, Christian theology played a pivotal role in the development and expansion of natural law ideas.As an important social phenomenon, the emergence and evolution of law are largely combined with the religion. The law must approach regulation and control over factual social order, and moreover, provide citizens under this law system with directive guidance. Both sides of the law share the same priority and interact with each other, the lack of either leads to imperfection. Therefore, the significance of the religious dimension in law can not be ignored.