John Witte Jr

John Witte Jr. is Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law, McDonald Distinguished Professor of Religion, and Faculty Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. A leading specialist in legal history, human rights, religious freedom, marriage and family law, and law and religion, he has published 350 plus articles, 19 journal symposia, and 50 plus books. ​

​His major books include: Law and Protestantism (Cambridge, 2002); The Reformation of Rights (Cambridge, 2007); Christianity and Law (Cambridge, 2008); The Sins of the Fathers (Cambridge, 2009); Christianity and Human Rights (Cambridge, 2010); Religion and Human Rights (Oxford, 2012); From Sacrament to Contract, 2d ed. (Westminster John Knox, 2012); No Establishment of Religion (Oxford, 2012); The Western Case for Monogamy over Polygamy (Cambridge, 2015); Christianity and Family Law (Cambridge, 2017); Church, State, and Family (Cambridge, 2019); The Blessings of Liberty (Cambridge, 2021); Faith, Freedom, and Family (Mohr Siebeck, 2021); Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment, 5th ed. (Oxford, 2022); In Defense of the Marital Family (Brill, 2023); Table Talk (Brill, 2024); The Oxford Handbook of Christianity and Law (Oxford, 2024); and The Legal Foundations of Religious Freedom (Notre Dame Press, 2026). Several of these titles have appeared in sixteen languages.

Witte has delivered more than 450 public lectures throughout the world, and directed 20 major international projects on democracy, human rights, and religious liberty; on marriage, family, and children; and on law and Christianity – collectively yielding more than 400 new volumes and journal symposia.

Witte has been elected 12 times as the Most Outstanding Professor in the Law School, and has won dozens of awards and prizes for his teaching and research, including induction into the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation in Spain and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.