Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
If We Love Justice, then We Will Return to the Discussion Again and Again (Last Day of Summer in the Republic 70)

If We Love Justice, then We Will Return to the Discussion Again and Again (Last Day of Summer in the Republic 70)

Last updated on: August 18, 2018 at 4:12 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

If We Love Justice, then We Will Return to the Discussion Again and Again (Last Day of Summer in the Republic 70) 2018-08-18T16:12:57-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Plato, Aristotle, Moses, and Jesus: One keeps returning to learn more.

I just read of a leader who is tired of hearing about justice issues. “Didn’t we discuss them already? Shouldn’t we move on?”

That’s impossible if we love justice.

We need to pursue justice and act with mercy again and again. As a result, we must discuss justice and mercy again and again.

Let’s be practical: How can we be just, with mercy, in this particular situation? To be just, we must learn how in the just now to apply Justice (the eternal Idea) to the specific situation we face.

We can know Justice, but not how to be just, because circumstances are always changing. As a result of these changes, we must return to discussion again and again. Discussion that includes God’s revelation, the ideas of great sages, and our neighbors will help us implement justice. We are not discussing for the sake of talking, but talking for the sake of doing.

For a Christian or any person who accepts the reality that an unchanging, objective morality exists, there is an advantage in knowing that justice is and is not going any place. This is good, accepting reality is always good, but not enough. Our work has just begun: finding we have a tool, even knowing generally how to use it, does not mean knowing how best to deploy that tool now.

I once knew a student who brought his Bible to class and would use an index, this was before ebooks, to answer any question. If I asked: “What is justice?” He would look the word up, find the answer, and think we were done with discussion. In a Christian context, there was wisdom to looking at the Bible: start with Revelation and see what God has said. However, this student failed to realize that applying what he saw in the text to what we were discussing is hard. Complicating matters further, the texts he found were often a particular application of the Truth to a specific historic situation described in the text.

Moral laws such as “Do not murder” do not change. Society changes. Our ability to understand the moral laws changes. Justice is an unchanging reality that must be applied in a changing world. The best way forward is to learn all we can about what does not change, Justice, and see, again and again, how this idea plays out in history.

Socrates’ best student, Glaucon, gives us the continuing project:

What I desire most, Socrates, is to hear someone praise justice for its own sake, and you are the one most likely to do so. Thus my purpose in praising the unjust life is to provoke a response from you that will effectively repudiate injustice and vindicate justice. Does my proposal please you?

Socrates’ response to Glaucon rebukes all of us when we grow weary of justice talk:

What else could please me more? This is the one subject, more than any other, that a man of sensibility will choose to discuss-and delight in returning to the discussion again and again.

We begin in praise of justice. Why? What good is praising an idea? The idea does not feel better or need our praise! We need to praise justice, because justice is praiseworthy. The appropriate response to goodness is praise. If we learn to praise the good, then we will learn to want more of the good. We love what we praise, if the praise is sincere.

Socrates can sincerely praise justice, because he wishes to know and possess justice. He instinctively hates injustice like any good man will. The trick, and it is a hard one, is to praise justice in a way that is effective. Effective praise of justice will make people want to be just. Thrasymachus, a sophist, has planted seeds of doubt that suggest injustice may be better than justice. He has praised injustice. The most effective praise of justice will be a demonstration that justice is good for the soul regardless of what happens to the soul externally.

Recall that Plato is writing this passage of Republic after the death of Socrates. Plato’s teacher was martyred in an act of injustice by Athenian democracy, but (see Phaedo), Socrates is happy to the end. Who better to make the case for justice in this book, than the man who died just? If he cannot do it, then nobody then living could.

Socrates loves justice and if he has not yet (at this point in Republic) been able to defend justice to the satisfaction of Glaucon, he is delighted to try again. Why? The lover is always happy to praise the beloved! Getting the lover to stop talking up the wonders of the beloved is harder than getting him to speak!

And so Socrates reminds us that applying justice in a changing world will not be an onerous task for us. We get to come back to the discussion of justice again and again. If we love justice, and if we see Justice, how can we not love her, then we will be delighted to return to a discussion again and again.

As always, God has made the world such that if all were as God made it, our work would all be delightful. Let’s aspire to be people who love justice so much that a chance to apply it to society is not onerous to us, but delightful.

Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.

———————————————-

*I begin an informal summer reading of Republic using Scott/Sterling (a new translation for me). Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Part 7. Part 8. Part 9. Part 10. Part 11. Part 12. Part 13. Part 14. Part 15. Part 16. Part 17. Part 18. Part 19. Part 20. Part 21. Part 22. Part 23. Part 24. Part 25. Part 26. Part 27. Part 28. Part 29. Part 30. Part 31. Part 32. Part 33. Part 34. Part 35. Part 36. Part 37. Part 38. Part 39. Part 40. Part 41. Part 42. Part 43. Part 44. Part 45. Part 45.5. Part 46. Part 47. Part 48. Part 49. Part 50. Part 51. Part 52. Part 52.5. Part 53. Part 54. Part 55. Part 56. Part 57. Part 58. Part 59. Part 60. Part 61. Part 62. Part 63. Part 64. Part 65. Part 66. Part 67. Part 68. Part 69. Part 70.

Culture

On Books

Spiritual Reflections

Previous Post

August 16, 2018

Good for the Soul (Summer in the Republic 69)

Next Post

August 18, 2018 Work and Liberal Education: Hands that Act based on a Good Heart and a Virtuous Head

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Apologetics Art Culture Education On Books On Education Philosophy Politics Pop Culture Spiritual Reflections Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 July 2025 June 2025 September 2024 July 2024 June 2024 December 2023 June 2023 September 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who baptized Jesus?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Elijah Paul John the Baptist Peter

Books by This Author John Mark Reynolds

See All Titles »