Eco-ethica

Volume 6, 2017

Ethics and Justice / Éthique et justice

Justice in the Prophetic Tradition

This paper explores the idea of justice in the prophetic strand of the Jewish and Christian traditions. First, a brief description is given of the context in which the prophetic idea of justice first evolves. Second, focussing on the historical and prophetic literature Hebrew Bible, an analysis of the defining characteristics of this idea of justice is undertaken. Third and finally, the relevance of this prophetic tradition for our contemporary politico-philosophical debates on justice is discussed in relation to the discourse on law and justice initiated by Jacques Derrida in the 1990s and followed up by Giorgio Agamben during the last decades.