This is a really useful and genuinely innovative work that will be excellent for teaching students about the nature of many of the most important complexities about and controversies regarding the idea of 'social justice,' especially as that idea figures in the Christian traditions. The authors of the five foundational essays have done a very good job of laying out their own views, and the follow-up response essays are a brilliant pedagogical device. Conversational yet controversial, rich in detail but never losing sight of the main point, McCracken and his authors have given us a tremendous gift for use in teaching Christian ethics and theories of justice.
Charles Mathewes, Carolyn M. Barbour Professor of Religious Studies, University of Virginia, USA McCracken has done a masterful job of putting five current, but very different, social justice 'voices' in critical conversation with one another. This is ethics pedagogy at its best—providing a diverse range of resources for one’s own social ethical reflection!
Jack A. Hill, Professor of Religion (Social Ethics), Texas Christian University, USA This is a valuable collection of contemporary writings on the relation between Christian faith and social justice. Rather than merely assembling secular and religious pieces from different perspectives, Vic McCracken has orchestrated a progressive dialogue between five notable authors, allowing each to comment on all the others. The five authors represent libertarianism, liberalism, liberation theology, feminism, and virtue ethics. Each asks how Christian belief impacts and is impacted by our understanding of what we owe each other and what constitutes a moral community. No consensus is arrived at – that is not the goal – but the conversation is highly edifying.
Timothy P. Jackson, Professor of Christian Ethics, Emory University, USA This edited volume presents five views of social justice from Christian scholarly perspectives. Editor McCracken’s introduction presents the essential connection between Christianity and social justice, using biblical and traditional sources…The lively exchanges between the authors make for good reading, sustained by the quality of the scholarship and argument, especially between Elizabeth Phillips (virtue) and Daniel Dombrowski (Rawls). The feminist and liberationist perspectives of Laura Stivers and Miguel De La Torre, respectively, concur in seeking to replace the status quo and challenge theoretical categories. Though the liberationist motif is most clearly rooted in Christian thought, the various views make fruitful connections to Christian faith, with the exception of libertarianism. This volume would work well as a supplemental text for a course. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.
R. Ward, Georgetown College
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