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
Catholic
Politics and Religion
Salvation And Social Justice

Salvation And Social Justice

Last updated on: August 20, 2024 at 7:29 am by Henry Karlson

0 Comments

Salvation And Social Justice 2024-08-20T07:29:43-05:00 Henry Karlson

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.

Bartolomeo Pinelli: Monk Giving Food To The Poor (Engaging Social Justice)/ Wikimedia Commons

Jesus spoke out against the abuses of the rich and powerful while defending and promoting the poor and the outcast. In Luke, this is rather clear, as we see him giving blessings to the poor, while giving warnings (or curses) to the rich (cf. Lk. 6:20-26). His mission was to save the world, but that meant more than just preserving it as he found it, it meant he had to transform and reshape the world, righting the wrongs which those who lived in the world experienced. This is why social justice cannot be ignored, as the salvation of the world requires all that is unjust to be made just.

The greater the problem, the greater the injustice, the greater God is drawn to it to work for its reversal. Jesus and the prophets showed, the injustices experienced by the poor, the outcast, and those being oppressed by society experience graver injustices than many others, by the way they focused on those injustices. Christians should take this to heart and make sure their engagement with the world, the work they do to help continue Christ’s reversal of the injustices created by sin, must recognize the greater importance the needs of the poor, the outcast, and the oppressed over many others (which is why the church talks about the preferential option for the poor and the oppressed).

Sadly, this aspect of salvation, this aspect of Christ’s work, often has been obscured as the rich and powerful have found ways to have it marginalized. They knew if Christians paid attention to the preferential option for the poor as it is revealed in Scripture and tradition, they would risk losing the wealth and power they have accumulated for themselves. This is why James Cone was right in saying, “The Gospel will always be an offense to the rich and powerful, because it is the death of their riches and power.”[1] The rich and powerful, to be sure, like the general message of salvation, they like being told God loves them, and so many are attracted to the Christian faith, but they want to be saved with “cheap grace,” that is, without having to change. And because of this, they have brought about in society a truncated or pseudo-Christianity, one which borrows Christian truths, but subverts them, making it seem like all one has to do is have some sort of intellectual assent to the teachings of the faith to be saved, fighting any expectation of transformation as being a “gospel of works.” But, if Christian paid attention to Jesus, not the rich and powerful, they would note that social justice is a major part of Christ’s message, and Christ clearly wanted his followers to embrace it for themselves.

Sin brings about social injustice. The rich and powerful, or those who would like to be rich and powerful, exploit the system to keep or gain dominance over others, using wealth and the power it brings to achieve their goal. But Jesus warned us we cannot follow Mammon and truly be one of his disciples. We must make a choice between Christ, and his way, the way of love and justice, or the way of Mammon (and the laws Mammon would impose upon the world). This does not mean we cannot be wealthy, but if we are, we are expected to use our wealth for the promotion of the common good, making sure we use our wealth to confront the structures of sin established by Mammon, to counter, that is, the evils associated with wealth with wealth itself.

The plan of salvation, the teaching of the Gospel, is radical, because it takes on, uncovers, and then overcomes sin and the injustices which flow from it. “From the outset, the Gospels wish to convey that the Jesus story is not simply a story about a good man who met an unfortunate fate. Rather, in Jesus God is at work, telling his story and disclosing the divine plan of salvation.”[2] The story of salvation is the story of how God comes within the world, empties himself of all apparently glory out of love for the world, so that those who are oppressed by sin and the injustices it creates, can be and will be comforted as God confronts the structures of sin and works to bring them to an end. God, surprisingly, does it by becoming, as it were, weak (in the incarnation), so that in and through that weakness, God engages the powerful and overcomes their power, destroying their domination and control over the fate of the world. The God-man, thus, joins in solidarity with all those who are weakened by sin, those who suffer injustice at the hands of the rich and powerful. Through the bond between God and the world created by the incarnation, those who were weak find themselves energized and strengthened by Christ, so that with the grace they receive, they can and should join in with Christ’s work to overcome the structures of sin in the world and the various systems which create them. Father Ippolito Desideri, a missionary to Tibet, explained this in the following way:

I will add that the Christ would not have had to submit to his painful Passion and death on the cross, as he did, to overcome the Devil in that way – that is, to completely disarm him and to restrict his power within very strict limits. To achieve that, it would have been sufficient to take back the general permission given to him from the beginning of the world to injure human beings, and for that only a gesture from his Divine Omnipotence would have been enough; nothing else would have been necessary. All of the sufferings that Christ bore in the course of his most holy life were well employed, and the shedding of his divine blood was well spent, because his victory over the Devil had to consist in fortifying weak human beings against him. Therefore, all of the pains and sufferings of the Man-God were not in vain, as they made it possible for a more miserable man to triumph over such a powerful adversary.[3]

There are many kinds of structures of sin which have been made, each which must be fought against and overcome, with the greatest and worst being the spiritual structures which try to imprison the whole of creation, forcing everything and everyone in it to be slaves to sin. But, many of the most significant structures of sin, the most imperative to deal with, are those which establish temporal injustice, for temporal injustices weaken the spirit and often cause people to despair, a despair which then hinder their spiritual transformation. If we are to confront sin, if we are to work with Christ to bring an end to sin in the world, we must work with him in eliminating the structures of sin. As sin is the root cause of social injustice, and social injustice helps reinforce the structures of sin, keeping people bound in the domain of sin, we must never treat work for social justice as some secondary concern which has little to do with our salvation. When we do that, we end up justifying sin and so hinders the transformation needed for us to truly be saved. .

Our fight against sin is to be waged on multiple levels. We are meant to join in with Christ, strengthened by him, fighting the spiritual fight, especially against those sins and temptations which get the best of us, but also fighting for and promoting social justice, as the two are all a part of the fight we are expected to have against sin. Our work against injustice, our temporal work, will continue until the end of time, that is, until the eschaton; we should not think if in temporal history, we will never find perfect justice, we should just give up the fight and let injustices reign, just as we should never give up in our fight against our own sinful habits, even if we believe will not persevere against them until the eschaton either. The poor will be with us always, so we must always be working for them and their rights, knowing that our work will come to completion only at the end of the world. If we don’t do this, we begin to ignore sin, and when we ignore sin, we let it regain power in the world and over ourselves. We will find ourselves turning away from Christ, and in doing so, risk losing our salvation as we show we do not care for him and his ways.

[1] James H. Cone, God Of The Oppressed (New York: Seabury Press 1975), 78.

[2] James H. Cone, God Of The Oppressed, 73.

[3] Michael J Sweet, trans., Mission To Tibet: The Extraordinary Eighteenth Century Account Of Father Ippolito Desideri, S.J. (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2010), 314.

Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook.
If you liked what you read, please consider sharing it with your friends and family!

N.B.: While I read comments to moderate them, I rarely respond to them. If I don’t respond to your comment directly, don’t assume I am unthankful for it. I appreciate it. But I want readers to feel free to ask questions, and hopefully, dialogue with each other. I have shared what I wanted to say, though some responses will get a brief reply by me, or, if I find it interesting and something I can engage fully, as the foundation for another post. I have had many posts inspired or improved upon thanks to my readers.

Progressive Christian

Politics and Religion

Systematic structures of sin

Previous Post

August 18, 2024

Trust In God

Next Post

August 21, 2024 PRS* XIV Learning To Listen

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"Gosh, did that hit the spot. I have been having great anxiety lately. And I ..."

Mark Wilson

Rejecting Doom: Christian Hope And Human ..."

"Justice and peace are two sides of the same coin. Where there is justice, there ..."

Dr.Cajetan Coelho

Justice First, Charity Beyond It: Serving ..."

"Thank you for your very, very powerful and very, very insightful analysis of the relationship ..."

alwayspuzzled

Justice First, Charity Beyond It: Serving ..."

"Given the amount of lethal malevolence that has prevailed in human history for the past ..."

alwayspuzzled

We Must Value Our Health

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion Abraham abuse Aesthetics AI Aliens Ambrose Ancestors and Everything Andrew Angels Animals Anne Anthony Antisemitism apologetics Apophatic Apostle John Aquinas Artificial Intelligence Asanga Ascension Asceticism Assumption Atheism Attachment Augustine Authority Avarice Balthasar Baptism Beauty Biden birthright citizenship Bishops Black History Books Buddhism Bulgakov Byzantine Calendar C.S. Lewis Calcidius Catholic Catholicism Catholicism Celibacy Charity Chastity children Chrismation Christ Christmas Christology Church Climate Change Common Good Communion Confession Confirmation Conscience Constantine conventions conversion councils Covid Creation Cross Dead Death Death Penalty Debate Deception Demagogues Demons Desert Monks Desert Mothers Desire destruction development Dialogue Dignity Dionsyius Dionysius Discipline Diversity Division Doctor Who doctrine dogma Dormition Dualism Easter Easter Series Ecumenical Councils Ecumenism Education Election Empathy Environment Error Eschatology eschaton Eternity Ethics Eucharist Evangelism Eve Evil evolution Faeries Faith Fear femininity Ficino Florence Florensky Folktale Fools Forgiveness Freedom Future gender Gentile Gentiles Glory Gnostic God gods Good Samaritan Goodness Gospel Government Grace Great Fast Guns Hate healing Health Heaven Hell Hellenism Heresy Hierarchy Hildegard Hinduism History Holiness Holy Spirit Holy Week Hope Horror Human rights humanity Humility hypocrisy ICE icon icons Identification Identity Idol II Nicea Immigration incarnation Individualism Informal Reflections Inklings Intention Inter-Religious Interfaith Internet Interpretation Intrinsic evil Irenaeus Islam Israel Jacob Jerome Jesus Jews John Chrysostom John of Damascus John the Baptist Joseph Judaism justice Justification kenosis Kindnesss Kingdom of God Kingdom of Heaven Law Law of Moses Lazarus Leaf by Niggle Lent Lenten Reflection Liberation Theology Lies Life Listen Literature Liturgy locutions Logic Logos Love Marriage Martyrs Mary Mass Maximos The Confessor Meanness Meditation Mercy Middle Path Migrants Mind Miracles Miriam Morals Moses Movies Music Muslims Myths Names Nationalism Native Americans New Year Nicea Nicholas Nothing Novatian Obedience Occam's Razor Ordination Origen Original Sin Orthodox orthopraxis Pagans Palamas Palm Sunday Paradise Paschaltide Paul Peace Pentecost person Peter piety PKD Plato pluralism Plurality Poem Poetry Poiltics Politics Poor Pope Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV Post Office Prayer Pride Pro-life Prodigal Son propaganda Prophecy Prophets Providence Putin Racism Reading Reason Reflection Refugees Relationships Religion Religion Series Religious Liberty Repent Republicans Rest Resurrection Rich Rites Russia Sacraments Saints Salvation Salvian Santa Science Scripture Self-Giving Sexuality Sibyl Sick Silence Sin Singlehood Social Justice Society Sodom Solovyov Speculations Spiritual Reflection St. Cyril of Alexandria St. Justin Martyr Suffering Sunday of the Paralytic Man Sunday of the Samaritan Woman Superhero Supreme Court Teaching Technology Thanksgiving The Father the Universe Theological Reflection Theology Theosis Theotokos Thomas Timaeus Time Tolerenace Tolkien Tradition Transfiguration Trinity Trump Truth Uncategorized Unity Universities USCCB Value Vatican II Vegetarian Vices Violence Virtue Vocations War Water Welcome Wisdom Womanhood Women Work World View Worship Writing Zacchaeus

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 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

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz