Augustine and Social Justice

Contributions by Mary T. Clark, Aaron Conley, María Teresa Dávila, Mark Doorley, Todd French, J. Burton Fulmer, Jennifer Herdt, Rodolfo Hernandez-Diaz, John Kiess, Matthew J. Pereira, Siobhan Nash-Marshall, Edmund N. Santurri, George Schmidt, Sarah Stewart-Kroeker, Sergey Trostyanskiy, Darlene Weaver, William Werpehowski Edited by Teresa Delgado, John Doody, Kim Paffenroth

Publication date:

14 January 2015

Length of book:

344 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

235x160mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781498509176

This volume brings into dialogue the ancient wisdom of Augustine of Hippo, a bishop of the early Christian Church of the fourth and fifth centuries, with contemporary theologians and ethicists on the topic of social justice. Each essay mines the major themes present in Augustine's extensive corpus of writings—from his Confessions to the City of God— with an eye to the following question: how can this early church father so foundational to Christian doctrine and teaching inform our twenty-first century context on how to create and sustain a more just and equitable society? In his own day, Augustine spoke to conditions of slavery, conflict and war, violence and poverty, among many others. These conditions, while reflecting the characteristics of our technological age, continue to obstruct our collective efforts to bring about the common good for the global human community. The contributors of this volume have taken great care to read Augustine through the lens of his own time and place; at the same time, they provide keen insights and reflections which advance the conversation of social justice in the present.

Introduction
I. Introductory and General Discussions
1. Augustine on Justice Mary T. Clark
2. The Pursuit of Social Justice: Some Augustinian Sources of Caution Mark Doorley
3. The Philosophical Tenets and Content of Augustine’s Social Doctrine Sergey Trostyanskiy

II. Economic Justice
4. Altruism or Holy Economy: Ambrose and Augustine’s Care for the Poor Todd French
5. The Consumer's Restless Heart J. Burton Fulmer
6. Eudaimonism and Dispossession: Augustine on AlmsgivingJennifer Herdt
7. Augustine and Political Economy Rodolfo Hernandez-Diaz

III. Politics, Power, and War
8. Augustine and Slavery: Freedom for the Free Aaron Conley
9. Interrupting Augustine’s Inheritance: Breaking the Dominance of Power and Order in Augustine’s Development of an Ethic of War through Latino/a Theology María Teresa Dávila
10. Augustinian Realism and the Morality of War: An Exchange Edmund N. Santurri and William Werpehowski
11. The Anarchistic Dimensions of Augustinian Realism George Schmidt

IV. Justice, Love, and Community
12. Common Ruins of Love: Augustine and the Politics of Mourning John Kiess
13. Augustine and Social Justice in John Calvin’s Biblical Commentaries Matthew J. Pereira
14. Friendship and Moral Formation: Implications for Restorative Justice Sarah Stewart-Kroeker
15. Augustine, Families, and Social Justice Darlene Weaver

How I would have loved a volume like Augustine and Social Justice to help me explore the implications of such reflections on justice. Despite the many works written on Augustine, including those that address Augustine’s understanding of justice, very few helped me probe what Augustine’s thought means for how we conceptualize and seek social justice. This volume does just that. The essays in this volume represent an impressive diversity of perspectives and cover a remarkable array of topics.