Justice: The Biblical Challenge

In Justice: The Biblical Challenge , Walter Houston asks what the Bible has to say about justice, and what relevance that has for people, particularly Christians, at the present day. After brief sketches of the various social contexts of biblical times which governed how people thought about justice, the examples of justice presented by the biblical text are grouped under three headings, which Houston calls three narratives or stories: the story of creation (justice as cosmic order), the story of the Exodus (justice as faithfulness), and the story of Israel (justice as a community of equals). He goes on to present the story of Jesus in Mark as exemplifying all three narratives, summed up paradoxically in humble service. The book then applies what has been learnt to today's world, especially to the UK and to a lesser extent the USA. A 'justice audit' is carried out on it, using the three biblical narratives of justice as yardsticks. This shows that the world is gravely lacking in justice in all three directions. A final chapter makes suggestions as to how the book's readers may work for justice in their own context.