Zachovávat právo a milovat milosrdenství: Ke vztahu lásky a spravedlnosti v kontextu křesťanského sociálního jednán
To Keep Justice and to Love Mercy: On the Relationship between Love and Justice in the Context of Christian Social Practice

Summary/Abstract: In the biblical tradition, justice and mercy form the basic structure of God’s will for human life and community. They also determine the contents of the social activity of the church, diakonia. From the theological point of view, they form a unity in God, nevertheless in the reality of this world they often exist in mutual tension, and in the history of a diaconal practice the emphasis on one or the other undergoes changes. This study aims to define a theologically justified perspective of the relationship between justice and love, respectively mercy, that can serve to orientate within the problems of Christian social activity. The study starts from a Protestant point of view, where the indicated problem takes on a special intensity, and it starts from the concepts of four selected confessionally evangelical authors: Emil Brunner, Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich and Paul Ricoeur. There is a need for a dialectical point of view at the relationship between justice and mercy, awareness of their inner unity as well as the ongoing tension between them. In the sense of the Lutheran distinction between secular and spiritual regiments, respectively gospel and law, it considers it necessary to balance them within the diaconical practice of the Church.

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