정의와 사랑 : 사회적 갈등 해소를 위한 모색의 차원에서

초록

In today’s society, the demands for justice are high, but the understanding of justice is different for each person or group. When various groups confront each other, they tend to do so without consideration of the different significance of the concepts of justice that they use to confront each other. They leave the idea itself of justice ambiguous. It is doubtful if one understands justice clearly when unjust antagonism and conflicts arise in the present day in the “Name of Justice.”This paper explores the cause of why today’s society cries for justice but seems unjust in basing its cries on a biased definition of love. It interprets justice as a reality based on love as grounded in the traditions of Christian thought. This exploration views the inherent significance and fundamental principles of justice not as a matter of judgment and punishment, but as the realization of love that affirms existence. The one-directional exclusive conception of justice prevalent in today’s world disregards the process of communication. This often leads to violent results that divide society rather than promote the inherent intentions of the true concept of justice. The violence of many of today’s movements toward “justice” is immoral per se. Such collective violence enacted in the name of justice originates from concepts of justice that exclude love. Complete justice cannot be found anywhere except as in loving others affirmatively and unconditionally. Of course, our human, finite love cannot be absolute,so it is incomplete. Because our love is incomplete, our actions are not always proper; thus this incomplete love increasingly craves for justice. The movement toward human justice is based on the finite nature of human beings, but it will be completed at last when it comes to fulfillment based on absolute love. What we ultimately want to reach through our righteous lives is nothing more than loving one another with a love which fulfills the ‘good life’.

키워드