Alister McGrath on Justification notes

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Alister Mc Grath, opening chapters on Justification

Distinguish between the concept and the doctrine of justification.

The term justification came to be the dominant metaphor for the entire soteriological action
1.Pauline scholarship in 12th Century
2.High Scholasticisms rationalisation of divine action to justice
3.Generally high regard for jurisprudence
4.Luthers wrestling with God is justification
5.The discussion at Trent of Soteriology under this heading

Not in the East though, they are more interested in theosis.

The problem boils down to
God is righteous
Man is a sinner
God justifies man The rest is working out how this can be the case

Sedeq
-rooted etymologically in 'conformity to a norm'
first used Judges 5 as 'victory', as the condition of continuance of covenant
acting in accordance to the claims of a relationship

dikaiosun- Aristotle, is part of the human contract polis for greater good
usually translated sdq, but sometimes the LXX traslated sdq with elemosuvn, mercy!

Iustitia- Cicero 'giving each one his due'
importantly, Jerome translated the Psalms from latin for the vulgate

hasdiq- to justify (not condemn but vindicate, aquit). Yet the greek can mean punish too, in fact, applied to an unjust person, it almost always means punish.
Not only this, but the Latin iustifacere and merit introduces the idea of merit,a quality of deserving, and the reward due because of this quality followed by Augustine and tertullian. If the greek had the sense of being estimated righteous, the latin had the sense of being righteous.

This results in an anthropocentricity to the argument. Ie What is the nature of righteousness in man, how did it get there, where did it come from?

The righteousness of God
Augustine- not God's personal righteousness, but the righteousness he bestows on sinners
Gabriel Biel- God's own moral righteousness.
Luther- objective genetive 'a righteousness which is valid before God
Bultmann- a relational term, a genitive of authorship
Kasemann-subjective genetive, attribute, God's saving action
Stendhal- Yes but God's saving action through History of his people
Cranfield- a genitive of origin, the status which comes from God
One thing is clear. NOT A MORAL CONCEPT

The whole tradition can be reduced to four questions: How is the concept of the justification of the ungodly to be understood? How is it possible? In what sense is it relevant? How may it be the legit and necessary interpretation of the history of Jesus?

Premodern was interested in the first two, 20th Century mostly interested in existential answers to the second two