John Chrysostom Quotes on Justice
John Chrysostom (c.349–407) — the Antiochene preacher and Patriarch of Constantinople whose homilies remain the most extensive surviving body of patristic preaching — gave the late fourth-century Christian tradition its most sustained engagement with the demands of social justice in light of the gospel. The homilies on the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistle to the Romans, and the rich man and Lazarus develop a famously uncompromising critique of property inequality: superfluous wealth constitutes theft from the poor, almsgiving is restitution rather than supererogatory generosity, and the imitation of the apostolic community of goods is a constitutive demand of Christian discipleship rather than an evangelical counsel for the perfect alone. The framework shaped Eastern Orthodox social ethics and the modern Christian engagement with poverty through the patristic ressourcement and Catholic social teaching.
Quotes
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Attributed to John Chrysostom:
“If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find him in the chalice.”
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Attributed to John Chrysostom:
“The most disadvantageous peace is better than the most just war.”
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Attributed to John Chrysostom:
“He who is not angry when there is just cause is sinful.”
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Attributed to John Chrysostom:
“Almsgiving is the queen of virtues.”
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“Nothing is more miserable than those people who never failed to attack their own salvation. When there was need to observe the Law, they trampled it under foot. … On this account Stephen said: "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart, you always resist the Holy Spirit", not only by transgressing the Law but also by wishing to observe it at the wrong time.”
Eight Homilies Against the Jews , Homily 1 -
“The Master is gracious and receives the last even as the first; He gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour, just as to him who has labored from the first. He has mercy upon the last and cares for the first; to the one He gives, and to the other He is gracious. He both honors the work and praises the intention.”
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