ABSTRACT
Social justice is, fi rst and foremost, social. Justice can really only be understood in the context of relationship. As I presented in Chapter Two : “Just Relationships,” while distribution of resources, effort, and relationship consequences is fundamental, it is the processual justice elements (being treated with respect, viewing the overall relationship as fair) that drives relational partners’ justice experience in the long run. Essentially, just distribution can only be maintained, over time, through just process. In the following pages, I take this perspective even farther. I make the argument that in interpersonal relationships, long-term, stable, just process is the result of, what I term, full love . Love may sound like the exact opposite of justice. But, I believe mature loving relationships actually create lasting venues for relational justice. Imagine a world where everyone was only out for themselves. Where you had to constantly manage, and cajole, and coerce every person to try to get them to act in a fair manner. Exhausting. Impossible. Or, as C. S. Lewis (1946) describes it in The Great Divorce . . . hell. What’s love got to do with it? Everything! To explore this perspective, let’s start by looking at the relationship dilemma that confronts us all-vulnerability.
