The Western Church: a Call to Justice

Abstract

Justice is of great importance to God and should be of equal importance to His followers. Unfortunately, this concern for justice has been lost in much of Western Christian thinking. Consequently, Christians miss out on a lifestyle Jesus and the early church lived out. This lack of concern for justice has taken away a central mission of the church: to care for the needy and seek justice for our communities. This paper focuses on three factors in the Western world that take away this central mission, arguing that they hinder the Christian's call to be carriers of justice in their own communities. The three factors are the following: 1) A poor theology on what it means to know and live for God; 2) The Cartesian Split, a Western philosophical tradition that separates the spiritual and physical; 3) the Institutionalization of Church.