The Virtue of Justice

Doing justice is currently fashionable, but developing the personal virtue of justice is less so: part of our concern for injustices must be making ourselves just. Just people give others what they are owed. God of course owes us nothing - neither our creation nor our redemption, & he has no ‘duties of justice’ towards us. Other people owe us what we would be harmed to be without. However, the harm done to victims of injustice is as nothing compared to the harm the unjust man does to himself. He may ruin others physically or socially, but he ruins himself morally - which is far worse.

What we are owed depends on what we are, our nature (thus ‘natural rights’) or on what we have promised or agreed to (‘positive rights’). But Christian morality cannot be fully explained with rights: we also need to speak of natural law, moral principles, duties, virtues & the common good.

Justice is closely related to love. The difference is that when we love someone we are not completely separate individuals any longer; whereas when we act justly the other remains ‘other’ to us. Just people make intelligent judgements about what is owed to ‘others’; they do not, unrealistically, try to relate to all people equally.