This theological study is a contribution to the search for a conception of justice which will form a just society. Its aim is to discover whether two leading modem secular theories of justice might be mediations of the justice of God, which I take to be a principle in Creation and the basis for the formation of society. My interdisciplinary approach advocates and employs critical theory to expose the pathologies of modernity, particularly domination (or the arbitrary use of power) as a major cause of injustice, and thus an impediment to the formation of a just society. This approach is undergirded by an Incarnational and Trinitarian theology which, through the use of a socio-political hermeneutic, transcends the biblical categories from which it origtuates. It recognises that the justice of God, understood throughout this thesis as right relationship or true sociality, is mediated through human agency and action which accord with God's nature and will. The theories of John Rawls and Jurgen Habermas which I choose to examine understand justice in terms of normative legitimacy, achieved through a publicly discursive and justificatory procedure, leading to a rational consensus about the social norms which form and direct society. My study assesses how far each mediates God’s justice in forming society. It concludes that Habermas's theory has a stronger claim in this regard owing to its greater degree of consonance with the communicative nature of that justice, and to a recognition that the reality underlying Habermas's theory of justice as communicative action is God's justice, mediated in the linguistic structure of Habermas's procedure. In conclusion, I propose that the Church, in adopting this communicative understanding of justice, commit itself to the building and defence of a vibrant public sphere, in which justice is discursively determined; and in which all members of society, especially the disadvantaged for whom God is concerned, participate deliberatively in the formation of the society God justly wills.

This thesis develops and tests the new theory that beliefs in societal justice offer a distinctive self-regulatory benefit for members of socially disadvantaged groups. Integrating concepts from the social justice and goal motivation literatures I hypothesize that members of disadvantaged groups are more likely than members of advantaged social groups to calibrate their pursuit of long-term goals to their beliefs about societal justice. In Study 1, low but not high SES undergraduates showed greater intentions to persist in the face of poor exam performance to the extent that they believed in societal justice. In Study 2, low but not high SES participants reported more willingness to invest in career pursuits to the extent that they believed in societal justice. In Study 3, ethnic minority, but not ethnic majority, participants who read that societal justice was improving reported more willingness to invest resources in pursuit of long-term goals, relative to control participants. Study 4 replicated Study 3 using a more subtle manipulation of justice beliefs, and demonstrated that the moderating role of ethnic status operates due to a difference in the perceived self-relevance of societal justice. Study 5 examined the moderating role of SES and ethnic status in a large cross-national sample. Two additional studies indicated boundary conditions for the effect, showing that goals which are not perceived as relevant to justice operate in the opposite fashion: In Study 6, low SES participants primed with injustice withdrew their resources from their academic goals, and reinvested them in their social goals. Study 7 replicated this effect, and provided evidence that when the self-relevance of justice information is highlighted, it can influence motivation even among members of advantaged groups. Ethnic majority participants who read about discrimination against their group also withdrew their resources from their academic goals, and reinvested them in their social goals.

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Also available in print.

Thesis (S.T.L.)--Catholic University of America, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-129).

Thesis (S.T.L.)--Catholic University of America, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-129).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pennsylvania State University, 2007. / Vita: leaf [172]. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 160-167).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-77).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Santa Cruz, 1987. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-144).

Thesis--Lund. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Bibliography: p. 155-157.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 127-135).