Christian Faith and Social Justice: Five Views - by Vic McCracken (Paperback)

About the Book

Contributers: Miguel A. De La Torre, Daniel A. Dombrowski, Jason Jewell, Elizabeth Phillips, Laura Stivers.

Book Synopsis

The Judeo-Christian tradition testifies to a God that cries out, demanding that justice "roll down like waters, righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (Amos 5:24). Christians agree that being advocates for justice is critical to the Christian witness. And yet one need not look widely to see that Christians disagree about what social justice entails.

What does justice have to do with healthcare reform, illegal immigration, and same-sex marriage? Should Christians support tax policies that effectively require wealthy individuals to fund programs that benefit the poor? Does justice require that we acknowledge and address the inequalities borne out of histories of gender and ethnic exclusivity? Is the Christian vision distinct from non-Christian visions of social justice? Christians disagree over the proper answer to these questions. In short, Christians agree that justice is important but disagree about what a commitment to justice means.

Christian Faith and Social Justice makes sense of the disagreements among Christians over the meaning of justice by bringing together five highly regarded Christian philosophers to introduce and defend rival perspectives on social justice in the Christian tradition. The positions advocated and critiqued are: libertarianism, political liberalism, liberation theology, feminism, and virtue ethics. While it aspires to offer a lucid introduction to these theories, the purpose of this book is more than informative. It is purposefully dialogical and is structured so that contributors are able to model for the reader reasoned exchange among philosophers who disagree about the meaning of social justice. The hope is that the reader is left with a better understanding of range of perspectives in the Christian tradition about social justice.

Review Quotes

"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, CHOICE

About the Author

Vic McCracken is Assistant Professor of Theology and Ethics at Abilene Christian University, USA, and co-convener of the pedagogy working group of the Society of Christian Ethics. In 2010 he was recognized as the Honors College Professor of the Year at Abilene Christian University and the College of Bible's Professor of the Year in 2012.