ABSTRACT
Churches are developing norms on interfaith relations as to their engagement with other major world religions represented in wider society. With respect to the State as a legal other, the regulatory instruments of churches indicate that for Christians the State is instituted by God. The emergence of human rights discourse has also stimulated churches to develop their own particular positions on the fundamental rights of the other in terms of the equality of all humans who are understood theologically to be created in the image or likeness of God. What follows examines comparatively the presence of these ideas in the laws and legal thought of Christians across a range of ecclesial traditions in global Christianity. In so doing, it explores whether it is possible to identify principles of Christian law on ‘the other’. Natural law continues to play an important part in Christianity across the various ecclesial traditions in terms of how Christians should treat others.
