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{"id":18860,"date":"2017-05-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-05-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=583"},"modified":"2017-05-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-12T00:00:00","slug":"justice-christianized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/05\/justice-christianized\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Christianized"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cW<\/span>e dismiss what philosophers take to be the fundamental exercise of justice,\u201d writes Ambrose in his Christianized Ciceronian treatise de officiis<\/em> (translation, F<\/em>rom Irenaeus to Grotius<\/em><\/a>, 84-5). According to Ambrose\u2019s summary, philosophical justice takes as \u201cthe primary criterion . . . that we do no harm except in return for harm done,\u201d a principle rejected by Jesus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The second philosophic principle is \u201cto treat common or public property as public, private as private.\u201d Ambrose considers this distinction unnatural: \u201cNature\u2019s bounty is universal, for the common use of all. God has so ordained the law of universal generation that there is common food for all and that the earth is a kind of common possession.\u201d Common right is rooted in nature, while greed<\/em> is the source of private right.<\/p>\n

Citing Stoic doctrine, Ambrose says that \u201cthe earth was created for the use of men, but . . . men came forth for men\u2019s sake, to be of help to one another.\u201d Thus it\u2019s God\u2019s will that we are \u201cof help to one another and . . . vie with each other in rendering services; we ought to put all our advantages in the common pool, as it were, and be a \u2018helper\u2019 (as Scripture says) by sympathetic interest, by discharging responsibilities, by giving money, by performing tasks, or however.\u201d In this way, \u201cthe attractiveness of human fellowship may be seen among us to the best advantage.\u201d This is Christian justice.<\/p>\n

Justice defined in this way is \u201ca resplendent quality.\u201d Justice\u2014\u201cserving the good of others rather than the self\u201d\u2014is the condition for the possibility of \u201ccommunity and association\u201d: \u201cIt holds the highest place, has everything subject to its judgment, offers help, supplies resources, does not refuse responsibility but accepts the risks that others bring.\u201d Justice is \u201ca veritable fortress of virtue, which any strategist would be glad to hold.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"