Abstract
The Evolution and Emergence of Justice
John Heagle, Justice Rising: The Emerging Biblical Vision (Marknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2010. $22.00. pp. 208. ISBN: 978-1-570758843).
In this engaging book, John Heagle sets out to confront and explore the evolution of biblical justice and to show that this justice is not only retributive but restorative and transformative, as well. Heagle weaves biblical exegesis and social critique with his own personal experience and quotations from poetry and theologians like Brueggemann and Crossan to present a clear and comprehensive picture of the emergence of justice. He explores the nature of justice through three lenses, creating a neatly structured picture both of biblical understandings of justice and of the challenges these notions of justice present to institutions and to the individual today.
Heagle begins by wrestling with scriptural texts in their context, tracing notions of justice (and injustice) through the prophets and the Law, and ultimately the writings of the gospels and the Apostle Paul. Heagle understands ‘justice rising’ not only in descriptions of justice by the prophets Amos and Isaiah, but also in the gospels as well as in Paul’s dramatic conversion experience described in Acts. For Heagle, justice arises through the Sinai covenant, the suffering servant of Isaiah, the suffering servanthood of Christ, and the vision of equality found in his life, death, and resurrection in the writings of Paul. In each of these engagements with scripture, Heagle is aware of the hermeneutical landmine of reading contemporary concerns back into the texts and this recognised awareness (p. 133), while walking a very fine line, allows him to engage more fully the texts and their understandings of justice and equality.
While each section includes a contemporary application and challenge to the reader, in the final chapters Heagle illustrates how this evolving and emerging justice found in the biblical narrative can be applied both to communal structures and institutions and to the reader and the reader’s own relationships and communities. As a vision of justice and peacemaking emerges, so too does the challenge to change. Heagle views the journey to embrace a vision of justice as the path of Christian discipleship and spiritual growth. While the reader may find it difficult that a definition of justice is not offered until the fifth chapter, ultimately this placement serves as a transition from descriptions of systems of violence and injustice to descriptions of community and peace-building.
Clearly, this work emerges from Heagle’s own experience as a Catholic priest, teacher, and psychotherapist, and the concrete examples he gives, as well as his engagement with scripture on both a personal and a highly academic level, reflect the interaction of these aspects of his life. This book is a good introduction for those seeking to understand justice and peacemaking more fully in a world of escalating fear and anxiety. This is an excellent book for personal reflection, but also one that would work well as part of a study, opening up discussion and offering challenges in ways that, as Heagle himself hopes, are transformative for both the reader and the world.