Relational economic justice

Maybe it’s because I’m Japanese-American that I feel skeptical reading Western political philosophy. When were we ever born as free individuals into a state of nature, as Locke and Rousseau asserted? I’ve always believed that we’re born into families, with binding ties, benefits, and obligations.

The Bible affirms that relationships are not merely social constructs for us to make and break as we choose. They are fundamental to who we are. And restorative justice, broadly speaking, is simply the restoration of healthy relationships. Theologian Adonis Vidu has outlined the ways in which the early church affirmed relational forms of justice.

In the late fourth century, theologian and bishop Gregory of Nyssa (in present day Turkey) preached scathing critiques of slavery. “You condemn a person to slavery whose nature is free and independent,” writes Gregory in his “Fourth Homily on Ecclesiastes,”