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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2024
The Letter of James reminds Christians that an authentic Christian faith cannot be completely separated from works:
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead (James 2:14-17 NRSV).
Similarly, a number of theologians have recently suggested that an authentic Christian spirituality cannot be separated from an active concern for and pursuit of justice. These theologians argue that a Christian cannot truly strive to grow in a relationship with God without a real concern for the well-being of other persons. One cannot hope to attain a transcendent union with God without a lived concern for the present circumstances of other men and women.
The present article attempts to offer further insight into the connection between justice and spirituality by focusing on the relational aspect of each and by viewing them in relationship to a contemporary understanding of Christian love. In short, it will be argued that justice, love, and Christian spirituality are all concerned with the establishment of authentic relationships with God, with other persons, and with the created order—ultimately as a transcendent hope but also as a task in present historical circumstances.
1 See, for example, Brown, Robert McAfee, Spirituality and Liberation: Overcoming the Great Fallacy (Louisville, KY: Westminster, 1988)Google Scholar and Dorr, Donal, Spirituality and Justice (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1984)Google Scholar. The connection between spirituality and justice is also made explicit by Latin American liberation spirituality. See, for example, Galilea, Segundo, The Way of Living Faith: A Spirituality of Liberation (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988)Google Scholar Gutierrez, Gustavo, We Drink from Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of A People (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1984)Google Scholar Sobrino, Jon, Spirituality of Liberation: Toward Political Holiness (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988)Google Scholar.
2 Donahue, John R., ‘Biblical Perspectives on Justice’, in The Faith That Does Justice: Examining the Christian Sources for Social Change, ed. Haughey, John C. (New York: Paulist, 1977) p. 6811Google Scholar 2. For other discussions of the relational basis of biblical views of justice, see: Stephen Charles Mott, ‘Egalitarian Aspects of the Biblical Theory of Justice’, American Society of Christian Ethics: Selected Papers (1978) pp. 8–26; Mott, , Biblical Ethics and Social Change (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982) pp. 59–81Google Scholar; Jose Miranda, Marx and the Bible: A Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1974) Leslie Hoppe, 'Community and Justice: A Biblical Perspective', in Economic Justice: CTU's Pastoral Commentary on the Bishops' Letter on the Economy, ed. John Pawlikowski and Donald Senior (Washington, DC: Pastoral Press, 1988) pp. 11–17.
3 Mott, ‘Egalitarian Aspects’, p. 12.
4 Mott, Biblical Ethics, p. 63.
5 Mays, James Luther, ‘Justice: Perspectives from the Prophetic Tradition’, Interpretation 37Google Scholar (January 1983) pp. 5–17.
6 Crosby, Michael H., House of Disciples: Church Economics, and Justice in Matthew (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1988) pp. 216–28Google Scholar.
7 Haught, John F., The Promise of Nature: Ecology and Cosmic Promise (New York: Paulist, 1993)Google Scholar.
8 Mays, pp. 10–11.
9 Maguire, Daniel C., “The Primacy of Justice in Moral Theology', Horizons 10 (Spring 1983) pp. 72–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
10 Hollenbach, David, ‘Modem Catholic Teachings Concerning Justice’, in Justice, Peace, and Human Rights: American Catholic Social Ethics in a Pluralistic Context (New York: Crossroad, 1988) pp. 16–33Google Scholar.
11 Lebacqz, Karen, Justice in an Unjust World: Foundations for a Christian Approach to Justice (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1987) p. 176Google Scholar, fa. 61.
12 Outka, Gene, Agape: An Ethical Analysis (New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 1972)Google Scholar.
13 Porter, Jean, 'De Ordine Caritatis: Charity, Friendship, and Justice in Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae1, Thomist 53 (April 1989) pp. 197–213CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
14 McDonagh, Enda, ‘Love, Power, and Justice’, in The Making of Disciples: Tasks of Moral Theology (Wilmington: Michael Glazier, 1982) pp. 112–27Google Scholar.
15 Outka (24–34) analyzes the difficulties that arise for an understanding of justice when love is understood as self–sacrifice. See also Lebacqz, Karen, Six Theories of Justice: Perspectives from Philosophical and Theological Ethics (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg, 1986) pp. 83–99Google Scholar.
16 Hollenbach (18–22) argues that the modern Catholic tradition on justice has emphasized the relational nature of justice and its connection with mutuality, reciprocity, and love.
17 Langan, John P., ‘What Jerusalem Says to Athens’, in The Faith That Does Justice; Examining the Christian Sources for Social Change, ed. Haughey, John C. (New York: Paulist, 1977) pp. 152–80Google Scholar.
18 Pope, Stephen J., ‘Aquinas on Almsgiving, Justice, and Charity: An Interpretation and Reassessment’, Heythrop Journal (1991) 170CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
19 My understanding of spirituality is dependent on definitions of spirituality and of Christian spirituality offered by Sandra Schneiders in ‘Theology and Spirituality: Strangers, Rivals, or Partners?’ Horizons 13 (Fall 1986) p. 266Google Scholar.
20 Meehan, Francis X., A Contemporary Social Spirituality (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1982)Google Scholar.
21 Tastard, Terry, The Spark in the Soul: Four Mystics on Justice (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 1989) p. 113Google Scholar.
22 Tastard, pp. 95–115.
23 For discussion of the implication of this text for Christian spirituality, see Donal Dorr, Spirituality and Justice, pp. 8–18; Brown, pp. 67–7Z
24 Brueggemann, Walter, ‘Voices of the Night–Against Justice’, in To Act Justly, Love Tenderly, Walk Humbly: An Agenda for Ministers by Brueggemann, Walter, Parks, Sharon, and Groome, Thomas H. (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist 1986) p. 2Google Scholar.
25 Brueggemann, pp. 14–17.
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