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Social Justice, Political Science, and Christian Thought

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Abstract

The challenge of developing a philosophy of social diversity and political pluralism confronts people throughout the world today at all stages of social, economic, and political development, whether from a Christian or any other standpoint. The words in the title of this chapter can be interpreted in many ways. My aim is to offer an historical-critical interpretation of their meaning in the West from the time of early Christianity to the present day.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Cranz [9].

  2. 2.

    Ullmann [29, p. 17].

  3. 3.

    On Augustine’s life and thought see, for example, Fox [10], Augustine [3,4,5].

  4. 4.

    Ullmann, Political Thought, p. 41.

  5. 5.

    O’Donovan and O’Donovan [22, p. 177].

  6. 6.

    Ullmann, Political Thought, p. 47.

  7. 7.

    For more on the two systems, see Ullmann, Political Thought, pp. 19–44.

  8. 8.

    Berman [6, p. 206].

  9. 9.

    O’Donovan and O’Donovan, Sourcebook, p. 232.

  10. 10.

    Ibid.

  11. 11.

    Huizinga [14, p. 247].

  12. 12.

    Berman, Law and Revolution, p. 285.

  13. 13.

    On the contribution of Aquinas [1], see also Copleston [8], Colish [7, pp. 265–302, 335–359], O’Donovans, Sourcebook, with selected texts and an introduction by the editors, pp. 320–361.

  14. 14.

    See Copleston [8, pp. 192–234]. In an early work, Summa Contra Gentiles, Aquinas focuses on creation and the Christian confession that God is the creator of all things: Aquinas [2].

  15. 15.

    On the Reformation see, for example, Hillerbrand [13], MacCulloch [19], O’Donovan and O’Donovan, Sourcebook, 581–694, Prestwich [23].

  16. 16.

    For the best introduction to the work of Althusius see Witte [32, pp. 143–207]. See also, O’Donovan and O’Donovan, Sourcebook, pp. 757–770.

  17. 17.

    For an introduction to the emergence of the modern era in the West, see, for example, Willey [31], Gay [11, 12], Voegelin [30], Kolakowski [15].

  18. 18.

    See Locke [16, 17].

  19. 19.

    See McIlwain [20], Tierney [28], Neumann [21], Smith [27], Lutz [18].

  20. 20.

    See Skillen [24,25,26].

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Skillen, J.W. (2020). Social Justice, Political Science, and Christian Thought. In: Xie, Z., Kollontai, P., Kim, S. (eds) Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Social Justice. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5081-2_9

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