A Biblical Critique of Secular Justice and Critical Theory
By Timothy Keller, Gospel in Life
The Problem We Face
Which justice? There have never been stronger calls for justice than those we are hearing today. But seldom do those issuing the calls acknowledge that currently there are competing visions of justice, often at sharp variance, and that none of them have achieved anything like a cultural consensus, not even in a single country like the US. It is overconfident to assume that everyone will adopt your view of justice, rather than some other, merely because you say so.
Biblical justice. In the Bible Christians have an ancient, rich, strong, comprehensive, complex, and attractive understanding of justice. Biblical justice differs in significant ways from all the secular alternatives, without ignoring the concerns of any of them. Yet Christians know little about biblical justice, despite its prominence in the Scriptures. This ignorance is having two effects. First, large swaths of the church still do not see ‘doing justice’ as part of their calling as individual believers. Second, many younger Christians, recognizing this failure of the church and wanting to rectify things, are taking up one or another of the secular approaches to justice, which introduces distortions into their practice and lives…
… In order to compare biblical justice to the secular alternatives, below is a brief outline of the facets of biblical justice.[6]
1. Community: Others have a claim on my wealth, so I must give voluntarily…
2. Equity: Everyone must be treated equally and with dignity…
3. Corporate responsibility: I am sometimes responsible for and involved in other people’s sins…
4. Individual responsibility: I am finally responsible for all my sins, but not for all my outcomes…
5. Advocacy: We must have special concern for the poor and the marginalized…
See also: A Faith That Makes a Difference, by Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
and
Justice and the need to speak about Jesus, by Martin Davie
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