The Dynamic between Love and Justice

Abstract

The dynamic between love and justice raised by Reinhold Niebuhr points to the possibility of transforming justice by love while acknowledging the distance between the two. This position has recently been challenged by Nicholas Wolterstorff’s idea of “love incorporating justice.” This article reexamines this dynamic between love and justice in the Chinese context, introducing Confucian alternatives to Western-style political order (in the version of the “Confucian constitutionalism” of Qing Jiang) to the Western theory of justice (in the version of the “Chinse theory of justice” of Yushun Huang), and to avoid the conflict between love and justice (in terms of the “Confucian love with distinction” of Yong Huang). This article argues that to explore social justice in China the concepts of love—both Confucian ren and Christian agape—can make their own contributions, demanding just institutions while revealing human limitations.