What I've Been Reading: Cosmic Justice

I’ve been reading and researching to try and educate myself on the subject of “social justice." In my search for resources, “The Quest for Cosmic Justice” by Thomas Sowell caught my attention. Sowell writes not as a theologian or a pastor but as an academic. This book is not an easy read but is worth your effort. 

Sowell begins the book by discussing how people can mean many different things with the word “justice” or “social justice." Sowell observes that social justice frequently concerns inequalities in wealth and income but can also span to include outcomes outside of the sphere of individual decisions—to the result where societal forces are personified: “The history of every people is a product of innumerable cross-currents, whose timing and confluence can neither be predicted beforehand nor always untangled afterward” (15). This, he contends, would better be named “cosmic justice.” The focus of cosmic justice concerns equal outcomes for all. In contrast, Sowell offers the term “traditional justice.” Traditional justice is concerned with producing an equal process. Sowell observes the impracticality of pursuing cosmic justice and contends that political processes are not the answer to deal with cosmic injustices.

In his second chapter, Sowell takes on the subject of equality. He gives examples of how not all disparity outcomes are the result of injustices. In the third chapter Sowell explores how societies flesh out these differing visions of justice and what the respective costs are of these philosophies. Sowell deals with these different visions of the world militarily, economically, and socially. 

In the final chapter, the author demonstrates how the pursuit of cosmic justice unintentionally repeals or undoes the founding principles of the American Revolution. He suggests the founders concerned themselves primarily with creating not just a system of government but “establishing new processes by which whoever occupied the places of power could be restrained and replaced” (146). Sowell argues that trying to achieve cosmic justice “means writing a blank check for a never-ending expansion of government power” (186). He proposes that it is often government that has produced some of the greatest injustices in history. 

Social justice sounds like something no serious person, let alone no serious Christian could oppose or not support enthusiastically. Sowell’s book offers some helpful cautions. 

First, Sowell’s warning about the impracticality of pursuing cosmic justice is instructive. Many conversations about justice today seem to forget human limitations both in wisdom and knowledge. We must be careful not to anoint any human authority as the ultimate arbiter of justice. As Christians, we recognize that God is the ultimate source and determiner of what is just and unjust. We also recognize the fallenness of this world can often hinder us from perfect pursuit of justice. There is a very real danger that in the name of pursuing justice, government control would expand to where tyranny is the actual outcome. As Christians, however desirous we are of justice, we must be careful that we do not replace God with government. 

Second, Sowell’s work helps us see the worldview behind the two fundamentally different visions of America. These visions of America relate back to one's concept of justice. Either America’s founding is tragically flawed and unjust or America’s founding is fundamentally good and just. Those who believe that America’s founding is unjust conclude that the systems and institutions of our country are fundamentally flawed and need to be remade. How people view America’s founding gives insight into some of the behavior we see in the streets and in the political arena today. 

Christians must be thoughtful and wise as we seek to engage in this conversation about justice. As much as we are able, we should seek to influence our culture toward righteousness. We recognize that God is concerned about justice otherwise Christ would not have died. Jesus died as the just for the unjust (1 Peter 3:18). We can do little to advance the cause of justice without making Jesus known. This must forever and always remain the primary emphasis of every follower of Jesus. The greatest way to impact a society is to win people to Jesus. A heart full of love and forgiveness will do more good than all the laws that Congress could ever pass.