Justice in An Unjust World, Part 4

Under the category of Jubilee are found three chapters:  Reclamation, Renovation and Implications.

Chapter 7:  Reclamation:  Justice in an Unjust World

The Jubilee is a powerful image "that captures both the joyous sense of release implied in liberation and also the sense of rectification of power balance implied in redress."  The Sabbatical-Jubilee laws provide for both "freedom and economic restructuring."  The Jubilee contains both personal freedom and social justice.  The American Emancipation Proclamation dealt with freedom but not socioeconomic justice.  Without justice to complete and protect their freedom, exslaves soon were re-enslaved by segregation and sharecropping.  Jesus emphasizes the necessity of both freedom and socioeconomic justice in Luke 4:18-19.  Lebacqz states:

"The Jubilee shows clearly that no rearrangement of structures will constitute 'justice' unless it truly provides for new beginnings.  It is not enough to remove shackles.  Unless land, equipment, the means for making living are provided, the cycle of poverty will begin again.  It is precisely this cycle of poverty [and oppression] that the jubilee year prevents."

This chapter which focuses on the Jubilee is stunningly powerful, wise and balanced.  Only one weakness:  it would have been very helpful if Lebacqz had tied the Jubilee to kingdom of God as the NT application of the principles of the Jubilee.

Chapter 8:  Renovation:  From Injustice to Justice

This chapter focuses a modern attempt to apply the principles of the Jubilee through the Rainbow Workers Cooperative which took over a plant that was closing.  An excellent idea, but the workers did not have the proper management skills so they failed.  For a successful cooperative venture, google Mondragon.

Is it possible to apply the land reform principles of the Jubilee on a national scale?  After World War II, land reform was implemented by the victorious Allies successfully in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.  Read A Captive Land.  During the Civil War, General Grant, for a short period of time, implemented Jubilee principle for exslaves on the Jefferson Davis plantation.

Chapter 9:  Implications for a Theory of Justice

Using the insights of the previous chapters, Lebacqz critiques the theories of justice held by Rawls, Nozick, R. Niebuhr, Miranda, and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.  She also lists some foundations for a theory of justice.

1.  "The formal principle of justice is therefore not to give each what is due but to correct injustices."
2.  The social sciences will be more helpful than philosophy.
3.  A theory of justice must be historical before it is philosophical.
4.  "Injustice takes primary forms in different parts of the world; sexism here, racism there, economic oppression in one place, political repression in another, and so on."  Often there will be a web of injustice.
5.  "Because justice emerges out of protest against injustice, justice is not so much a state of being as a struggle and a constant process. . . .  It is the process of providing new beginnings, not an ideal state of distribution."  Again, google the Mondragon model.

Next, Lebacqz lists the rudiments of theory of justice:

1.  "Justice will move toward righteousness as its plumb line."
2.  "Justice will reside in responsibilities and duties, not rights."
3.  "Domination and oppression are injustices because they are violations of a covenant of mutual responsibility.  The violate the relationship and the violate the personhood of both parties [oppressed and oppressor]."
4.  "God's justice for the oppressed consists in liberation from oppression."
5.  "No theory of justice is adequate that does not provide for an assessment of the incomplete and partial nature of the historical jubilees that are created."

This is a relatively short book---160 pages---and the author humbly insists that it is not a complete theory of justice.  It is written at the level of an educated layperson.  A CCD practitioner could grasp its powerful message.  I highly recommend it as one of the 15 best books have read over my 90 year career.  Most American Christians have grasped only a few pieces of the justice puzzle.  This book will greatly accelerate the putting of the many pieces of the justice puzzle together.