Social Justice in Early Christianity

Author(s):  
Maria E. Doerfler

Scripture, early Christians agreed, instructed believers not only how to worship God but how to live rightly with their neighbors. Christians nevertheless pursued social justice only selectively. Concern for the poor and for strangers became an early and lasting preoccupation in Christian discourse. By contrast, many Christians remained partial to the violent entertainment of circus games, and did not consistently advocate for the empire’s least regarded members. While homilists might instruct Christians to treat well their own slaves, slavery as an institution remained unchallenged by even the most socially conscious Christian writers. By the fourth century, the increasing Christianization of the empire led to Roman legal support for clergy’s efforts to ensure social justice. The care of prisoners and orphans and, increasingly, the resolution of conflict among particularly the empire’s Christian population were tasks that had long been part of bishops’ roles and that now enjoyed imperial support.

Author(s):  
Paul F. Bradshaw

This chapter traces the various ways in which the cultic language and imagery of the Hebrew Scriptures influenced and shaped the liturgical thought and ritual practices of early Christianity, from the first to the fourth century ce. At first, this was primarily through the metaphorical or spiritual application of such concepts as priesthood and sacrifice, but eventually there are indications of the beginnings of the adoption of a more literal correspondence between some elements of the Temple cult and aspects of Christian worship. Both corporate and individual practices of prayer are covered, including the use of the canonical psalms, as well as the appropriation of traditional ritual gestures and the emergence of Christian holy days out of biblical festivals.


Ethnography ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 531-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ove Sernhede

The globally reported riots in the poor high-rise suburbs of Sweden’s metropolitan districts in 2013 were stark manifestations of the increased social and economic inequality of the past 30 years. Large groups of young adults acted out their unarticulated claims for social justice. In the light of the riots, it is relevant to ask whether any trace of resistance or protest can be found in the compulsory school where the young people from these neighbourhoods spend their days. The ethnography sampled for the article comes from two public schools in two poor, multi-ethnic, high-rise neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Gothenburg. The article argues that the theoretical and methodological concepts and perspectives developed by Willis still is of crucial importance to any investigation aimed at understanding the presence or absence of resistance in contemporary Swedish schools.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 189-207
Author(s):  
AN Ras Try Astuti ◽  
Andi Faisal

Capitalism as an economic system that is implemented by most countries in the world today, in fact it gave birth to injustice and social inequalityare increasingly out of control. Social and economic inequalities are felt both between countries (developed and developing countries) as well as insociety itself (the rich minority and the poor majority). The condition is born from the practice of departing from faulty assumptions about the man. In capitalism the individual to own property released uncontrollably, causing a social imbalance. On the other hand, Islam never given a state model that guarantees fair distribution of ownership for all members of society, ie at the time of the Prophet Muhammad established the Islamic government in Medina. In Islam, the private ownership of property was also recognized but not absolute like capitalism. Islam also recognizes the forms of joint ownership for the benefit of society and acknowledges the ownership of the state that aims to create a balance and social justice.


Vox Patrum ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 78 ◽  
pp. 157-182
Author(s):  
Carson Bay

The late-fourth century work called On the Destruction of Jerusalem (De Excidio Hierosolymitano), or “Pseudo-Hegesippus”, records the history of the Roman-Jewish War (66-73 CE) and particularly the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple by the Romans in 70 CE. As a Christian version of this history based largely upon Flavius Josephus’ earlier Jewish War, De Excidio understands himself to be telling the story of the effective death of the Jews in history. One major aspect of this narrative, I argue, is a discourse of Jewish disease, wherein Ps-Hegesippus portrays the Jews as “sick” with the plague of civil insurrection and sedition. But this discourse goes much further as well, cutting to the very core of De Excidio’s narrative logic. Here I argue that this discourse of Jewish disease finds its most powerful expression in one particular chapter of the work, Book 5, Chapter 2. I show that De Excidio 5.2 epitomizes the work’s rhetoric of Jewish contagion, which can nevertheless be traced throughout the entirety of the work.


Lumen et Vita ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-28
Author(s):  
James E. Kelly
Keyword(s):  

In this essay, I will examine the scriptural basis for Origen’s interpretation of Luke 4:18-19 as an allusion to Jesus’ identity as savior, not as a call to social justice. I argue that this interpretation is consistent with the intentions of the gospel writer. The essay begins with an analysis of the gospel writer’s redaction of Mark 1 in Luke 3-5. Based on that redaction, I hypothesize that Luke intends to emphasize Jesus’s identity with the anointed one mentioned in Isaiah 61:1-2. This excerpt from Isaiah not only gives Luke 4:18-19 its Christological significance but also clarifies Luke’s understanding of poverty in relation to the Gospel. I then examine Origen’s application of the Lucan passage for his pastoral purposes. To conclude, I suggest that we, like Luke and Origen, read Scripture Christocentrically in order to better facilitate the church’s encounter with Christ during the liturgy.  


Author(s):  
John Tomasi

This chapter examines what it calls “social justicitis”—a strongly negative, even allergic, reaction to the ideal of social or distributive justice. Social justicitis is a malady from which many defenders of private economic liberty suffer. For libertarians, arguments on behalf of social justice may be as threatening as a bee sting is to some people. In the case of classical liberals, social justicitis arises as an adverse reaction to talk about social justice at the level of public policy. The chapter first considers the notion of distributional adequacy condition from the perspective of classical liberalism and libertarianism before discussing the arguments of classical liberals and libertarians regarding property and the poor. It also explores F. A. Hayek's critique of social justice and the implications of his theory of spontaneous order with respect to distributional ideals.


Antiquity ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 46 (182) ◽  
pp. 111-116
Author(s):  
David Brown

The Pietroasa treasure is a late fourth-century hoard of jewellery and gold plate; it is normally associated with the Visigoths, and is thought to have been buried at the time of the advance of the Huns into Europe. The surviving pieces of the treasure were shown in the splendid exhibition of ‘Treasures from Romania’ in the British Museum last year; the objects were briefly described in the exhibition catalogue and many were illustrated, but there were no details of the finding or significance of the hoard, and the visitor was left to speculate on the very battered state of many of the pieces. In fact, when found, the treasure comprised 22 pieces and, by all accounts, all were in excellent condition; the poor state of the twelve survivors is due to an unhappy chain of events.


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