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Deliberating: Justice and Liberation
Daniel M. Bell, Jr.
Justice and liberation are at the center of Christian faith. But, how does that play out in practice. What does it mean to do justice and liberate the oppressed.
What is Justice? In the west, justice is typically defined as suum cuique—to each what is due.
- The classical background: good prior to right. There is general justice (benefitting the community) and particular justice (ensuring that individuals share in the common good). Classically, this plays our as priority of the good over the right. Like are treated alike, but unlike are treated differently and this is just.
- Modernity: right prior to good. [Vocabulary: deontology—the study of the nature of duty and obligation.] If you put rights ahead of the good, you end up with justice essentially policing the laws.
- Contemporary theological appropriations. Current theological thought views justice as an external standard to which Christianity is accountable to. Often they try "to prove that Christianity is up to the challenge, that it is a faith that does (secular) justice."
- The agony of modern justice. Current justice and the peace it leads to are a simulacrum (an unsatisfactory imitation) for true peace. It is a fortified peace since it always backed by a threat of force. This peace is better called a truce.
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Jesus, the Justice of God. The medieval vision of justice as articulated by Augustin, Anselm, and Aquinas.
- The Word (I): atonement. How the atonement defines Jesus as justice.
- The Word (II): Scripture as justice and justification. "… Biblical justice is a matter of effecting communion, not the impartial administration of an abstract forensic ideal.
Works of Mercy. How do we respond?
- Response (I): font and table. We need to receive the justice of Jesus by the sacraments of baptism, communion, and the liturgy.
- Response (II): works of mercy. Works of mercy include 7 corporal and 7 spiritual works.
Conclusion.