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1. Beginnings Like socialism in general, religious socialism is a political and social movement that sought to replace the existing order by a new and more just social order. Triggered by the drastic social effects of the industrial revolution (Industrial Society) but largely irrelevant after World War II, it involved the idea that the Christian faith has crucial relevance for the carrying out of political, economic, and social tasks (Politics; Economy; Society). Rooted in the older Christian trad…

1. Term and History The term “democracy,” which comes from ancient Greece, literally means “rule by the people.” In political philosophy, democracy was viewed as a form of government. It stood between aristocracy (the rule of the elite) and the negatively viewed ochlocracy (mob rule; Aristotle Pol. ). Classical Greece—or more narrowly the city-state of Athens in the fifth and fourth centuries b.c. up to its subjugation by Philip II of Macedonia and the end of its independence in 338 b.c.—ranked as a model democracy. In Athens male citizens had the right to vote at popular…

1. OT 1.1. Term The Heb. root ṣdq is as comprehensive in meaning as the Eng. “right(eous),” Ger. (ge)recht, Gk. nomos, or Lat. ius (Law). It embraces, besides the narrower legal sense of justice, judgment, and standard for what is right (Ger. Gericht, Rechts-norm), the wider ethicosocial sphere of wholesome and salutary relationships. The masc. ṣedeq denotes a state of beneficently ordered relationships between people or between people and God; the fem. ṣĕdāqâ refers to conduct that corresponds to this state or promotes it; the verb ṣdq describes the related action…