By: John F. Romano
The intersection of religion and the law is a topic of
continuing interest to lawyers and the public alike. Our system of
government was established to ensure that religion and politics
would not become intertwined. Despite this, most would
recognize that religion plays an integral part in the lives of
those who comprise the governmental institutions of this country.
Although the topic of the impact of faith and religion on the
government is an interesting one, this paper instead analyzes the
issue from the other side of the spectrum—the influence of one’s
profession on one’s faith in God. Inspired by the
seventeenth-century masterpiece Religio Medici by Sir Thomas
Browne, this paper will attempt to translate Browne’s insight about
what the medical profession can say about God to the contemporary
legal professional. This paper will conclude, just as Browne
concluded with respect to the medical profession, that through the
legal system’s failings and shortcomings, its participants are made
privy to the existence of God.