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The theme of justice and righteousness, as both God’s and human justice and righteousness, plays a central role in the biblical writings and shapes the Christian understanding of justice and righteousness. While this theme was often interpreted in the past primarily in relation to the forgiveness of the individual’s sins through God’s merciful righteousness, God’s justice is today increasingly understood also as God’s justice-establishing action in history and related to the practice of justice among believers. In light of the injustices of the world, justice and righteousness remain central to ecumenical and interreligious dialogue as well.
This article is a translation from the German; the original term Gerechtigkeit like the Greek term dikaiosyne, encompasses both justice and righteousness. The translation therefore renders the term according to context, using justice where social, relational, legal, restorative, and liberative dimensions are foregrounded, and righteousness where soteriological, Pauline, christological, or justificatory dimensions are at issue. The theological interrelation between justice and righteousness is crucial for understanding the argument of this article, since the German term Gerechtigkeit holds together dimensions that English often separates: God’s saving and justifying righteousness, God’s justice-establishing action in history, and the corresponding practice of justice among human beings.