ABSTRACT
There are, of course, profound similarities between Protestant and Roman Catholic thought on social justice. It would indeed be strange if this were not so. The cultures in which Christianity has flourished prior to the missionary expansion of recent centuries were deeply influenced by Christian notions, and in their turn shaped and perhaps sometimes distorted the expression of the Christian faith. Biblical teaching on justice comes primarily in the garb of narrative and of injunctions, denunciations and the announcement of coming judgement and the restoration or establishment of God's just ordering of things, the messianic age or the Kingdom of God. Justification, according to the thought of the Reformation is 'the article by which the church will stand or fall'. Luther's own experience of justification was definitive for his whole theological and reforming project. God's justice is not blind, impersonal, mechanical or retributive. It is rather gentle, forgiving, reconciling, and above all loving.
