I am interested to know what people here think about the concept of "justice" and Christianity. Also, justice and God. Basically, what people think justice is and how that plays into our Christian life, if that makes sense? I just want opinion.
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10 comments:
If I may opine:
God is justice- one cannot separate the concept of justice from the concept of God.*^
Justice can be defined as the appropriate ordering of an essence in such a way that it instances happiness or goodness; happiness here, of course, is not synonymous with pleasure. Justice is central to our lives in so far as it relates to our Imago Dei, that is, it’s essential. This is because to be human is to be the Imago Dei, and since the Imago Dei is nothing but the image of God, and the image of God includes being just, then one cannot be human without being just.
________________
* St. John
^ Plato, “… In like manner, then, you are to say that the objects of knowledge not only receive from the presence of the good their being known, but their very existence and essence is derived to them from it, though the good itself is not essence but still transcends essence in dignity and surpassing power.” (Republic (better translated as “Justice”), 509B)
PS. It might be asked, giving my construal, 'isn't it the case that humans are, a great many of times, unjust? If so, how can you say to be human is to be just when some humans are not just?'
To this I say this is why the Holy Canon speaks of injustice as sin: which in greek means 'missing the mark' (like in archery). So, when a human partakes in injustice, he's missing the mark of being human, and therefore he or she makes himself less human. Hence the need for redemption, hence the work of the cross, and hence the final judgement: where men refuse to regain their humanity in such a way they become altogether non-human.
Thanks Derek. Does anyone else have anything to say ever? Louis, get your ass over here. Garrett can come too. Seriously you guys, this is a chance to do some real philosophical musings so leave your bullshit attitudes and your baggage at the door. 'Cause we don't need 'em. HEY GUYS.
corie: how hard can it be? justice is justice is justice.
now, is this how i am to be asking you to shut?
So you don't think that even Christians define or understand what it means to be just in different ways? Now, let me ask you another question: are you retarded?
what is this retarded that you are saying?
you are not just.
(you are not just what?)
Nicholas Wolterstorff--a.k.a. best dude ever--is putting out a (multi-volume?) work on the subject of justice. It should be RIPPING.
As for me, I'll tell you what justice is. It's socialism. NOT. It's capitalism. PSYCH. It's an essentially unanalyzable concept. COULD BE.
Justice is like a soap opera. You know it when you see it. End of story.
I hate all of you except Derek.
I believe that justice is, broadly speaking, the proper ordering of objects. It can be synonymous with righteousness, and is also determined by God's very character. It encompasses both a moral category and an amoral category. By this I mean that there may be intentional or moral injustices (when a man murders another man), or unintentional or morally neutral injustices (when a man falls short of perfection in a given sport, and not for lack of trying).
I think a common error is for people to call God's forgiveness of sins "unjust". Even the reformed theologian R. C. Sproul says that there are two categories: just and non-just. But within "non-just" there are two further categories that amount to something like "merely non-just" versus "evilly unjust". His point is that God's forgiveness is "not fair" (or not deserved), but it is not an evil occurrence.
I have also seen non-Christians makes claims like that Christianity is incoherent because it asserts God to be morally perfect, and yet allows for the unjust (or "non-just") occurrence of forgiveness.
I think the paradox deserves a lot of thought. Isn't it true that even a single intentional sin merits eternal damnation? Isn't it true that every post-Adam human is born into a state of relational separation from God?
If so, if each man "legally" or "justly" deserves damnation, how can God be just in admitting anyone into heaven?
The answer: the incarnation and crucifixion. The entire point of Christianity is that Jesus, being fully God, took unto Himself the fullness of humanity, in order to live a perfect life, in order to die in such a way as to fully pay the debt of the world to God. The details of this are laid out in the Gospels, the Epistles, Colossians and Hebrews, and have been discussed in philosophical and painstakingly thorough theological treatises ever since these writings.
It is precisely the crucifixion that grounds God's forgiveness. It is because of God's just character that He is forced to require full payment for every crime. And how can we complain? We all want to see murderers get punished!
But it is because God is loving, and He desires to restore beautiful things, much more humans made in His very image, that He sent one of His persons - the one relating to the Father in a manner most accurately described as Sonship - to satisfy His wrath against sin.
How beautiful, and yet tragic! God's justice requires payment, and God's love motivated Him to pay it!
We usually take deeper issue with God's forgiveness of prostitutes and murderers than we do with His execution of justice on thieves and homosexuals. Most of us have a harder time being forgiving than we do being condemning, and yet the beauty of Christianity is that it grounds cosmic forgiveness and shows how God executes justice nevertheless.
Being God, Jesus' boundless worth enables Him to pay such a large debt. And yet He had to be made fully human, as the nature of the debt requires a human punishment.
In this way "only man must pay the debt... and only God can pay it". Jesus is God, and had to become man for this reason.
Therefore, justice is what is right. One important matter that concerns both justice and Christianity is how the two interface. They interface in this way: God is just and yet admits sinners into heaven because of the death of Jesus, which paid their debt to God.
Thus, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
Why is it that only those who reconcile with God in this life are granted saving grace? This is a question worthy of answering.
What is more important: what humans are saved from, or what they are saved for? Another question worthy of an answer.
and by "moral injustices" I mean injustices on the moral-immoral spectrum. So an injustice within a moral category is an immoral act. Whereas an injustice within an amoral or morally neutral category is not a morally abhorrent sin, it is merely a falling short of perfection.
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