He argued that there are no moral norms or absolutes outside of us that we must obey regardless of what we think or feel, and therefore we cannot discover them through reason. David Hume did not believe that was possible. There is the Classical (Homer through Aristotle), the Biblical (Augustine through Aquinas, whose accomplishment was to incorporate some of Aristotle), the Enlightenment (especially Locke, Kant, and Hume)-which then set the stage for the modern Liberal approach, which has fragmented into a number of competing views that struggle with one another in our own day.Įarlier Enlightenment thinkers sought a basis for morality and justice not in God or religion but one that could be discovered by human reason alone. In his book he traces out four basic historical traditions of justice. No one has done a better job of explaining our current predicament over justice than Alasdair MacIntyre, especially in his book Whose Justice? Which Rationality? He shows that behind every understanding of justice is a set of philosophical beliefs about (a) human nature and purpose (b) morality, and (c) practical rationality-how we know things and justify true beliefs. 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. First, large swaths of the church still do not see ‘doing justice’ as part of their calling as individual believers. ![]() Yet Christians know little about biblical justice, despite its prominence in the Scriptures. ![]() Biblical justice differs in significant ways from all the secular alternatives, without ignoring the concerns of any of them. In the Bible Christians have an ancient, rich, strong, comprehensive, complex, and attractive understanding of justice. It is overconfident to assume that everyone will adopt your view of justice, rather than some other, merely because you say so.īiblical justice. 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. Which justice? There have never been stronger calls for justice than those we are hearing today.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |