The sculpture that has come to be the Journal of Law and Religion Lifetime Achievement Award is rooted in both legal and religious thinking; it speaks to all people. It is the culmination of long and difficult discussions. Several ideas were developed and abandoned. The resulting sculpture is an expression of the relationship between law and culture which is inspired by aspects of the giving of the law at Sinai, although not an illustration of it. Before the event at Sinai, the people were gathered around something else. The idea presented in the sculpture is that people will organize around what you set before them. It points to the profound importance of what you do, and it speaks to the delicacy with which you must act. Whatever you do, people will gather around it. That is the basis for the image.
The people are gathered in relation to each other, around the law. The person in the center, pillar-like in gesture and looking ambiguously toward the people and toward heaven, supports and embraces the law. If you are a member of the legal profession, you may feel free to identify with this individual.
The other individuals are not just attending to the law. They are gesturing in various ways to one another, to themselves, to the group, to their gods. These people are living life. The law must promote life.
No one would argue with the responsibility of the legal profession to create order, nor would anyone disagree that reconciliation is a most important part of what the legal profession is charged to do. But reconciliation implies that something is wrong. The principles for living, especially ethical living, don’t always begin with a problem. They begin with our regard for ourselves, for each other, and for God.
This is the challenge, to promote life—and further, to promote ethical life. Most important in this image is that the law allows us to have access to ourselves, to each other and to the source of our ethical principles. The law can’t teach us how to live our lives or how to be ethical, but it can help to make it possible.