As mentioned in my opening paragraph, I am dedicating this blog to the pursuit of justice.  Justice is, arguably, the highest and most important social/political virtue.  Theologians, philosophers, and political scientists have argued this point for many years.  However, as a social/political virtue, justice is not a stand-alone, a starting point.  It is a concept arrived at after many points of metaphysics (i.e. premises, presuppositions, axioms), epistemology (i.e. truth claims), and ethics (i.e. right v. wrong) are set.  In other words, justice is a derived concept, a function of one’s beliefs in the even more basic areas of life.

Because this is true, it is incumbent upon someone commenting on the issue of justice to be explicit regarding their fundamental beliefs.  Therefore, the following statement is in order:  I am a Christian, believing the only absolute truth is found in the Bible.  Additional truths can be deduced from the Bible, according to the accepted rules of logic and reasoning, and others may be inferred from our understanding of the reality around us.

A word to my conservative Christian friends.  The bible uses the same word for both “righteous” and “just.”  This in itself is an indication of the high value the Bible places upon justice.  To string clichés, just as “without holiness no one shall see the Lord,” so also, “faith without justice is dead.”  (The Bible’s word is “works,” but the substitution of “justice” is clearly sanctioned by the context.)  For a Christian, justice defines both belief and actions approved by the Bible and is therefore a concept mandated by God.  We, as Christians, are called to live justly.  This does not support any tenet of what is often called “the social gospel.”  Doing justly does not speak to the issue of salvation.  But it is the type of action God expects of his people because of their salvation.  Justice is, simply, love in action.  To ignore justice is to fail to live up to God’s calling.

To my secular friends, while I attempt to base my beliefs on a consistent view of the Bible’s truths, many views expressed by other belief-systems are compatible to mine.  That compatibility allows for a fruitful exchange of ideas.  This is especially true of the concepts of justice, going back to classical (at least) Greek thinkers.

Finally, I’d like to say that I make no pretensions of being a strictly academic or philosophical blog.  I hope to comment and write about events of the day, albeit from a polemical, but intellectually defensible, position.  In all likelihood, many posts will be comments about the books I’m reading, because that is still where the true conversation about values is happening in today’s world.  While I may not be able to influence the world appreciably, hopefully I can help a few others evaluate current times also.

• Political-Economics