Justice, Equality, and Human Rights are all hotly contested topics in Europe and across the world today. This seminar will explore the biblical view of justice and the biblical foundations for equality. It will look at the ways in which Christians contributed to the development of human rights. It will seek to understand the ideas about human nature and human fulfilment underlying the ways in which justice, equality, freedom, and human rights are being distorted and weaponised today. You should leave this seminar with more confidence in the Christian vision for a good society.
Session 1 - Thinking Christianly About Equality: Creation and the imago Dei, the Fall, universal sinfulness, and the offer of salvation are foundations for equality in the West, and Christ powerfully demonstrates the Christian message of equality. In the first part of this seminar, we will discuss these claims and explore why equality of status does not equate to approval or endorsement of all lifestyles and behaviours as equally healthy, right, and wise.
Session 2 - Thinking Christianly About Justice: A biblical understanding of justice fills out the classical understanding of justice as “treating others in the way that is due to them”. In the second part of this seminar, we look at the relational nature of justice in the Bible and social and structural justice from a biblical perspective. We will explore how biblical justice treats individuals and groups fairly and how it differs from contemporary accounts of social justice.
Session 3 - Thinking Christianly About Human Rights: Are there human rights in the Bible? Is justice possible without rights? In the third part of this seminar, we answer these questions and also examine how the Bible balances protection for individuals and minorities against the common good. We will discuss when Christians should use the language of human rights and the dangers of doing so.
Session 4 - Conclusion: How do we seek first the kingdom of God and His justice? In the concluding part of this seminar, we will consider how Christian understandings of equality, justice, and human rights relate to love and forgiveness and discern the accounts of creation, fall, and redemption that underlie competing accounts of equality, justice, and human rights.
