One-in-the Many: Doing Justice to Our Unity and Diversity*
As we all know James Luther Adams is a very hopeful person. This was most clearly seen in Jim's suggestion that I give the James Luther Adams lecture this year. My guess is that he heard that the overall theme of this year's annual meeting was justice and he hoped that, as a lawyer and a p...
| Published in: | Journal of law and religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Cambridge Univ. Press
1992
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| In: |
Journal of law and religion
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | As we all know James Luther Adams is a very hopeful person. This was most clearly seen in Jim's suggestion that I give the James Luther Adams lecture this year. My guess is that he heard that the overall theme of this year's annual meeting was justice and he hoped that, as a lawyer and a person who allegedly was doing theology from the vantage point of a lawyer, I should have something to say about the subject.Several problems come to mind immediately with this expectation. The first is the problem of saying anything that JLA has not already said with greater depth and humor. The second problem is best expressed by the story of the young law school student who naively asked one of his law school professors to tell him what was meant by justice. The professor responded that, if he wanted to find out about justice, he should go across the street to the divinity school. He crossed the street only to be told to reverse directions and ask someone at the law school. We might explain this by saying that both schools are limited by narrow perspectives—perhaps a positivistic perspective at the law school and a pietistic perspective at the seminary. Another answer might be that each has trouble trying to figure out what justice is all about. In reading the latest discussions of justice, I gained a new appreciation for the slipperiness of the subject. Is Clarence Darrow right when he said about justice, "no one knows what it means." |
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| ISSN: | 2163-3088 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of law and religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/1051208 |