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Theology and Equality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Roger Ruston O.P.
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Until very recently Christian theology has never been much concerned with social equality. It would be true to say that, on the contrary, a well-developed theology of inequality has been characteristic of Christianity for most of its history. Before I develop this theme it could be well to define what kind of equality I am talking about. I am concerned with social equality of the kind that is demanded by many contemporary civil-rights movements. It may be called ‘equality of consideration’ by which I mean the presumption against treating human beings differently in any respect until grounds for the distinction have been shown which are relevent to the distinction we propose to make. According to such a principle we consider that to judge an individual not on his merits relevant to the case but on the supposed merits of some class to which he belongs is a fundamental injustice. The onus of proof that membership of some class of human beings disqualifies an individual from equality of consideration in some respect always lies with one who wishes to make or to perpetuate the disqualification.

A principle of equality of this kind is not a natural Christian growth. It can be developed without any reference to Christianity but it is likely to be more vigorous if it comes about by the cross-fertilisation of Christian inspiration and humanist ideas. If Christianity has contributed anything to the development of the equality principle in society it is not so much by way of formal Christian ideas as by way of a certain humanitarian impulse at work in a suitable ideological environment.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 55 , Issue 645 , February 1974 , pp. 52 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © 1974 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers

Footnotes

1

A paper read at the conference on Women in the Church, held at Blackfriars, Oxford in September 1973.

References

2 See Social Principles and the Democratic State, Ben, S. L. and Peters, R. S., London 1959Google Scholar.

3 August Hagen, quoted by Walter Ullmann in The Individual and Society in the Middle Ages, London 1967, p. 14Google Scholar.

4 Giudice, Vincenzo del and Catalano, Gaetano. Nozioni di Diritto Canonico, Milan, 1970, p. 89Google Scholar.

5 O. cit. p. 8ff. The first part of this papers relies heavily on the writings of Ullmann.

6 In Ullmann op. cit. p. 14. Gregory may well have believed that the coming of christianity revealed a true order of merit among men regardless of race or birth‐though hardly regardless of sex. The difficulty isto know what he meant by ‘merit’ and what he thought it counted for. In any case it must have been something attributed to the man of faith and not to the natural man. It must also be said tht when ‘merit’ is made the basis of a system of authority instead of just a simple rule against unjust discrimination it is about as slippery a concept as ‘nature’, and just as objectionable.

7 As Ideologies become senile and more frequently contested so they tend to become more rigidly applied. With regard to the subjection of women in the church for example, there were far more exceptions to be found in the Middle Ages than in modern times.

8 The organic, hierachical ideology of th churhc which we inherit from that time was easily underpinned by the texts from St. Paul concerning the diversity of functions within the One Body of Christ. But the idea that everyone in the churhc should find his proper place according to his gifts has always been compatible with actual donimation by one class of christians ove another, just as the idea of service has. We must beware of producing thiese ideas as if they were some new discovery of the post‐conciliar church that will dissolve away all the damaging inequalities. They have been part of the system for centuries.

9 See R. Ruston, Remaining in the Calling in which you were called. In New Blackfriars, Oct. 1972.

10 Conzelmann, Hanz, An Outline of the Theology of the New Testament, London 1969, p. 276Google Scholar.

11 Cone, James in A Black Theology of Liberation, N. Y. 1970Google Scholar, quoted by Edmund Hill in an article on Black Theology in New Blackfriars, June 1973.

12 On myths of inequality in general see Mason, P., Patterns of Dominance, London 1970Google Scholar.

13 M. Harris, quoted by Michael Banton in Race Relations, London 1967, p. 113Google Scholar.

14 On the subjection of Women, Everyman's Library, p. 223.