FAITH AND JUSTICE

In a seminal essay, Father John Langan asks what Christian faith may contribute to our understanding of justice. The two answers which are most attractive and simple are both of doubtful usefulness for Christians involved in the practice of working for justice in a modern pluralistic society.

The first of these answers is ‘everything’: true justice is the justice of God who calls all people to live together injustice and peace. Apart from what God reveals there is no understanding of justice; Christians alone truly know what justice is and what the God of justice demands. This view faces two major difficulties. First, in a pluralistic society a purely theological and Christian view is hardly likely to find general acceptance. Secondly, a theological view of justice is likely to be so general that it requires some kind of ethical or theoretical mediation if it is to bear on the specific issues of justice today. Alternatively, it may make absolute the norms and structures of a past age. Those who believe that the Decalogue or the Sermon on the Mount provide norms for the day-to-day operation of the Chase Manhattan Bank are liable not to be taken seriously; at the end of the day they tend to find themselves marginalised and without influence on the shaping of policy. Nevertheless, faith may help to motivate and support people in their vocations, as they strive to live and work well amid the perplexities of modernity.

The second answer to the question as to the contribution of the Christian faith to our understanding of justice is ‘nothing’. Policy-making and political theory rest on philosophy and the facts of the case; theology has nothing relevant to offer.