Resurrecting Justice
For centuries, the dominant concept of justice in the West has been the constant will to render another his due. The Bible, though, contains a different way of thinking about justice: comprehensive right relationship. This justice affirms what is due, or rights, but also proffers duties that exceed due such as mercy, hospitality, care, forgiveness and reconciliation. Retrieving this justice, which the classical concept has overswept, holds out promise for politics today in matters ranging from the protection of life, to immigration, to healing the wounds of racial injustice.
Experience the Event
Presented by Maritain Center
For centuries, the dominant concept of justice in the West has been the constant will to render another his due. The Bible, though, contains a different way of thinking about justice: comprehensive right relationship. This justice affirms what is due, or rights, but also proffers duties that exceed due such as mercy, hospitality, care, forgiveness and reconciliation. Retrieving this justice, which the classical concept has overswept, holds out promise for politics today in matters ranging from the protection of life, to immigration, to healing the wounds of racial injustice.
Meet the Speaker: Daniel Philpott
Daniel Philpott is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He earned his Ph.D. in 1996 from Harvard University and specializes in religion and global politics, focusing on religious freedom, reconciliation, the political behavior of religious actors, and Christian political theology. His books include Revolutions in Sovereignty (Princeton, 2001), God’s Century: Resurgent Religion in Global Politics (Norton, 2011, coauthored with Monica Duffy Toft and Timothy Samuel Shah), Just and Unjust Peace: An Ethic of Political Reconciliation (Oxford, 2012) and Religious Freedom in Islam: The Fate of a Universal Human Right in the Muslim World (Oxford, 2019). Currently he is writing a book that sets forth a political theology based on a Christian concept of justice. He has promoted reconciliation as an activist in Kashmir, the Great Lakes Region of Africa, and the Catholic Church with respect to clerical sex abuse. He is married to Diana Philpott and has three children, Angela, James, and Peter.