Biblical Law and the Making of England explores the transformative influence of biblical law on English governance and political thought over a thousand-year period from King Alfred to Karl Marx. Great thinkers have been inspired by its political wisdom for centuries including John of Salisbury, Stephen Langton, the English Reformers, John Selden, Sir Edward Coke and the father of liberalism himself, John Locke. By means of central political texts the book traces how biblical law has shaped English political consciousness, whether handled badly or used well. Its principal writings include the law-code of King Alfred the Great, the Policraticus, Leviathan, De Jure Naturalis and The Two Treatises of Government, along with essays and materials from Jeremy Bentham, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Also central are the momentous events surrounding Magna Carta and King Henry VIII’s break from Rome, and their main texts. In doing so, this fully interdisciplinary book demonstrates that the riches of England’s intellectual heritage owe much to the influence of biblical law. The book thus provides a corrective narrative concerning the role of biblical law in English law and history that has often been neglected. At the same time, it critiques the academy’s reluctance to explore biblical law and its constructive application. The book describes biblical law as the jewel in the crown of good governance. When it has sparkled, England has shone. And like a jewel, it is also priceless currency – treasured, abused and misspent throughout England’s history. Yet biblical law remains eternally revolutionary in its call to justice and mercy; its political realism; its framework for human flourishing; its ability to inspire intellectual inquiry; its conciliarity; its limits on government power; its resistance to tyranny and its commitment to liberty.