In The Line Coercion Cannot Cross, J.R. Cooper examines the relationship between agency, virtue, and moral responsibility, offering a sustained moral argument about the limits of authority and the conditions under which moral goodness is possible. Drawing from diverse philosophical traditions—including Objectivism, Latter-day Saint teachings, and creedal Christianity—the book explores how freedom and responsibility shape human moral life.

At the core of the book is the claim that moral life requires genuine agency: the capacity to choose freely and to bear responsibility for one’s choices. Without agency, virtue loses its meaning and moral growth becomes incoherent. For this reason, the book rejects coercion as a tool of moral formation and challenges readers to reconsider accounts of goodness that depend on control, compulsion, or imposed outcomes rather than authorship.

Beyond critique, The Line Coercion Cannot Cross offers a constructive framework for understanding authority in a morally serious way. Cooper argues that legitimate authority does not replace judgment or override choice, but instead operates by clarifying truth, preserving responsibility, and sustaining the conditions under which agency can flourish. The book applies this framework to real moral contexts, helping readers evaluate claims of authority in personal, familial, religious, and social life without collapsing freedom into license or obedience into submission.

Written for readers interested in moral philosophy and serious theological reflection, this book will appeal to members of the Latter-day Saint community, Objectivists seeking careful philosophical engagement, and thoughtful Christians examining how divine authority can be understood without undermining human agency. It is also for anyone concerned with how moral responsibility is preserved—or distorted—when institutions, traditions, or systems seek to shape human behavior.