Listen to the podcast here: Episode 177: Obery M. Hendricks, Jr. – Social Justice & the Radical Gospel

In this episode of The Bible for Normal People Podcast, Obery M. Hendricks, Jr. joins Pete & Jared to discuss biblical evidence for social justice. Together they explore the following questions: 

• Does the Gospel have anything to do with justice? 
• What are the two most often occurring ethical concepts in the Bible? 
• In the Hebrew scriptures, is righteousness an individualistic concept? 
• What is the dual meaning of dikaiosunē, a term used in the Gospels? 
• Why is social justice in the Bible a divisive concept? 
• If social justice is so plainly in the biblical text, why do some deem it to be anti-biblical? 
• What do salvation and deliverance refer to in the Hebrew Bible? 
• What is behind a Protestant Reformation, individualistic reading of Paul? 
• If the Bible really does advocate for social justice, how did the concept of become politicized? 
• How does concern with power and privilege negate an interest in social justice?
• What passages in the New Testament point to the revolutionary nature of turning things upside down? 
• Was Jesus involved in social activism and concerned with social change? 

TWEETABLES

Pithy, shareable, less-than-280-character statements from Obery M. Hendricks, Jr. you can share. 

• “The most foundational and most often-occurring and often-used ethical concept in the Bible is justice.” @oberyhendricks
• “Love your neighbor as yourself” means wanting the same rights and privileges and opportunities and access to good things in life for others as you want for yourself. The whole biblical witness is egalitarian social justice.” @oberyhendricks
• “In the Bible, the culture is essentially dyadic. In other words, it’s all about the community. There is no word for individual in biblical Hebrew. The term is always ha’am, the people, the community.” @oberyhendricks
• “Loving our neighbor or doing justice in a society is the reflection of one’s relation with God. Actually, it’s the only evidence of one’s relationship with God.” @oberyhendricks
• “We have folk who see things in terms of individualism and read individualism … in their translation of the text … when those who wrote the biblical texts and lived the biblical texts didn’t have any notion of individualism at all.” @oberyhendricks