Beyond Liberal and Communitarian Justice: A Wesleyan Approach to Restorative Justice

Abstract

This article proposes that Christian theology can engage contemporary justice debates not by baptizing liberal frameworks but by demonstrating the historical viability of communitarian alternatives grounded in theological conviction. While Michael Walzer's communitarian critique of Rawlsian liberalism opens space for religiously informed justice discourse, his cultural relativism prevents adequate normative grounding. John Wesley's eighteenth-century Methodist movement provides a historical precedent that addresses this lacuna: Wesley's ‘restorative justice‘—the theological restoration of right relationships distorted by sin—embodies Walzer's communitarian insights while transcending his limitations through commitments to universal human dignity, divine grace, and eschatological transformation. Drawing on John Milbank's genealogical critique of secular social theory, I argue that Wesley's integration of personal holiness and social transformation demonstrates how Christian communities can develop distinctive approaches to economic justice. The article examines Wesley's concrete practices—class meetings, mutual aid, structural critiques—as instantiations of restorative justice, while acknowledging historical limitations to avoid utopianism. This research contributes to Christian social ethics by showing how Wesleyan theology provides the metaphysical foundations that Walzerian communitarianism requires but cannot supply.