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Christianity and Social Justice: The Problem of Majoritarianism and a Search for the Common Good

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Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Social Justice

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Abstract

The interactions between Christian theology and wider society have been mutually beneficial but at the same time often contentious. One of the difficult issues has been the question of minorities or dissenting opinions over against the majority views in a political system with socio-cultural and economic diversities. Freedom, security, equality, and the rule of law are some of the key aspects of the responsibility of the society, which enable human community to flourish, but society must also deal with the ‘problem of minorities’. This is not just a matter of tolerance, compassion or charity from the majority or from those who have authority, wealth and power but the system has to provide for the poor, marginalised and voiceless as a matter of seeking social justice for all.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Editorial [10].

  2. 2.

    Fukuyama [13, xi].

  3. 3.

    Editorial, ‘What’s Gone Wrong….’ 3.

  4. 4.

    Preece [23, p. 5]. See Rawls [24, p. 277].

  5. 5.

    Preece, Minority Rights, p. 8.

  6. 6.

    Preece, Minority Rights, pp. 183–186.

  7. 7.

    See Parekh [25].

  8. 8.

    See Israel [16, pp. 1–36].

  9. 9.

    de Gruchy [7, p. 9], Ibid., p. 228.

  10. 10.

    For in-depth discussion on the Catholic Social Teaching, see Curran [6], Rhonheimer [27].

  11. 11.

    Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace [26, pp. 84–85].

  12. 12.

    Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales [4].

  13. 13.

    ‘The Common Good…’ p. 12.

  14. 14.

    ‘The Common Good…’ pp. 14–15.

  15. 15.

    ‘The Common Good…’ pp. 70–71.

  16. 16.

    Hollenbach [15, pp. 20–22].

  17. 17.

    Hollenbach, The Common Good, p. 57.

  18. 18.

    Hollenbach, The Common Good, pp. 60–61.

  19. 19.

    Hollenbach, The Common Good, pp. 190–200. For discussion on the development of the concept, see McGrail & Sagovsky, ‘Introduction’, xxvi–xxviii. See also Rhoheimer [27], McCann and Patrick [20]. McGrail and Sagovsky [21].

  20. 20.

    de Gruchy, Christianity and Democracy, pp. 264–267.

  21. 21.

    de Gruchy, Christianity and Democracy, pp. 244–247.

  22. 22.

    Bellah et al. [1, pp. 3–9].

  23. 23.

    Bellah, et al. The Good Society, p. 255.

  24. 24.

    Bellah, et al. The Good Society, p. 283.

  25. 25.

    Wallis [30, pp. xi–xiii].

  26. 26.

    Wallis, The (Un)Common Good, p. 182.

  27. 27.

    Wallis, The (Un)Common Good, pp. 183–84.

  28. 28.

    D’Entreves [9, p. 225].

  29. 29.

    de Gruchy, Christianity and Democracy, p. 8.

  30. 30.

    de Gruchy, Christianity and Democracy, p. 11.

  31. 31.

    Neville [22, pp. 1–21 at 7].

  32. 32.

    Gutiérrez [14, xxix].

  33. 33.

    Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, p. 88.

  34. 34.

    Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, p. 8.

  35. 35.

    Segundo [28, pp. 4–5].

  36. 36.

    Boff [3].

  37. 37.

    Ahn [2, pp. 150].

  38. 38.

    Ibid., p. 151.

  39. 39.

    Koonthanam [18, p. 107].

  40. 40.

    Cyris Moon, ‘A Korean Minjung Perspective: The Hebrews and the Exodus’, in Sugirthrajah (ed), Voices from the Margin, p. 236.

  41. 41.

    Tipton [29, pp. 624–5].

  42. 42.

    See Lindsey [19].

  43. 43.

    Dean et al. [8, p. 20].

  44. 44.

    Kennedy [17, p. 50 & 52].

  45. 45.

    Fraser [11]. See also Fraser [12].

  46. 46.

    Chen [5].

  47. 47.

    Chen, ‘The Concept of “Datong”…’, pp. 88–89.

  48. 48.

    Ibid., p. 98. Nine boundaries include the establishment of a world government, the disappearance of social classes and private property, and transfer of familial functions to publicly established institutions.

  49. 49.

    Ibid., pp. 100–102.

  50. 50.

    Wang [31, pp. 129-153 at 136–139].

  51. 51.

    Zhang [32].

  52. 52.

    Zhang, ‘The Common Good in Moism’, pp. 105–117.

  53. 53.

    Ibid., pp. 117–126.

  54. 54.

    Hollenbach, The Common Good, p. 244.

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  1. Fuller Theological Seminary, 135 North Oakland Avenue, 91182, Pasadena, USA

    Sebastian Kim

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  1. Shanghai, China

    Zhibin Xie

  2. York, UK

    Pauline Kollontai

  3. Pasadena, CA, USA

    Sebastian Kim

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Kim, S. (2020). Christianity and Social Justice: The Problem of Majoritarianism and a Search for the Common Good. 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_10

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