The Bible, Justice, and Public Theology

Book excerpt: Public theology is a developing field of discourse concerned to address matters of pressing public concern in theological perspective for the common good. Themes of ecology, poverty, human rights, and especially justice feature prominently in its discourse. Although justice is also a prominent theme in the Bible, there is no single perspective on what constitutes justice in the Bible and no single view on how biblical perspectives on justice should contribute to contemporary discussion regarding the meaning and implementation of justice. Informed and inspired by Christopher Marshall's landmark work on Compassionate Justice (Cascade Books, 2012) in dialogue with Jesus' parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, this collection of studies addresses various interrelations between the Bible, justice, and public theology. Marshall himself proposes that certain parables of Jesus are paradigmatic for public theology, and some contributors respond to different dimensions of his treatment of the parables of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son in terms of restorative justice. Other contributors, by contrast, examine broader related concerns such as justice in biblical, theological, and philosophical perspective, the hermeneutics of engagement for justice, the relation between feminist theology and restorative justice, biblical resources for public theology, and popular culture as both a conversation partner with and a medium for public theology.