Work

All Justice, No Peace: October 7, the War in Gaza, and the Structural Limits of Retroactive Justice in Contemporary Liberation Theology

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: This article argues that contemporary theological and transnational justice discourse has undergone a structural shift from future-oriented emancipation to retroactive moral accounting. While liberation theology originally understood justice eschatologically, as an opening toward transformed relations and shared future life, contemporary discourse increasingly organizes justice around categorical identity, historical suffering, and immediate verdict. I call this condition “all justice, no peace”: multiple claims to justice remain internally coherent yet become mutually incommensurable, making coexistence harder rather than easier. The article traces three dynamics behind this shift: the global circulation of solidarity frameworks that stabilize rather than pluralize moral categories; the closure of the hermeneutical circle around fixed identities; and digital mediation, which privileges verdict over witness. These dynamics are examined through the Israeli–Palestinian conflict after 7 October 2023, where post-Holocaust Christian theology and Palestinian liberation theology each generate powerful but structurally non-relational claims to suffering and justice. The article concludes by proposing a move from retroactive to prospective justice as the only framework capable of sustaining future-oriented political and theological life.

Source: Religions

DOI: 10.3390/rel17060735

Author: Maayan Karen Raveh

Institution: University of Haifa

Language: English

Topic: Theological Perspectives and Practices

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,172