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This book introduces readers to Catholic social teaching, the Church’s long tradition of reflection on the meaning of social justice and how to enact it. The Church derives its faith-based principles for promoting justice and peace from rich sources in scripture, theology, reason, and human experience. These teachings, as contained in papal encyclicals and documents from global gatherings of bishops, have inspired broad efforts to advocate for so many important goals—including human rights, the common good, equitable international development, disarmament, healthy family life, and labor justice.
Readers will be led step-by-step to a deeper understanding of the demands of social justice in the world today. They will also examine the building blocks of Catholic social teaching, including its key themes, sources, and methods for clarifying values and reaching firm conclusions, always in ways appropriate to pluralistic modern societies. Along the way, readers will encounter great heroes of social change and prophets of peace and justice. This new fourth edition includes expanded coverage of such topics as global migration and climate change, new case studies applying ethical principles to currently pressing social issues, and the major social teaching of Pope Francis.
The book culminates with a description of the social justice advocacy of Pope Francis who has renewed Catholic social teaching in many distinctive ways. He has provided new resources that empower the church to navigate the many crises facing the world today. These include the refugee and environmental crises, profound challenges to family life and economic justice, and the desperate need for more effective diplomacy and global peacebuilding. A number of helpful resources contained in this volume, including eight tables, discussion questions, topics for further study, and an annotated list of print and web resources on Catholic social teaching, make this volume a perfect text for college-level courses on social justice.
Eight tables that illustrate key points of the text; “Questions for Reflection” and “Topics for Further Research” (five to ten of each in each chapter); includes an updated “Annotated List of Resources for Further Study”; includes a comprehensive index; all technical terms of the discipline are defined and explained upon first usage.
Accessible and comprehensive, Living Justice is a go-to textbook for my introductory courses on Catholic Social Teaching. Massaro brings the book up to date with the social teaching of Pope Francis and illustrates the significance of his contribution to the Catholic social tradition.
Thomas Massaro provides a path to the lifelong quest of how faith calls us to justice. He not only introduces the reader to the narrative of Catholic Social Teaching but also links its importance to the life of the Church today. This text invites the reader to dialogue with the best forces of secular society to create a better world. It offers a vision, methods of analysis, tools of discernment and principles of proceeding, a toolbox of supports and clarifications, which make the whys and ways of the Social Tradition, available to the reader. An excellent resource for the classroom and a tool for those who want to introduce or support those seeking to make a difference.
I know of no better single volume on the history and principles of Catholic Social Teaching that also brings readers up-to-date on that tradition's most recent developments and contemporary, global relevance. With an extensive new chapter on the contributions of Pope Francis to CST, neophytes and seasoned theologians alike will find something to appreciate in this eminently readable 4th edition. As a secondary and postsecondary classroom text, Living Justice will prove indispensable in introducing a new generation to the Church's ongoing concerns with social justice.
Fr. Massaro’s Living Justice is the go-to book for teaching about social justice in a Catholic context. An accessible text that’s found favor with professors, high school teachers, and adult education facilitators, this fourth edition adds new attention to environmental justice and the teaching of Pope Francis. Having taught the book since its first edition, I appreciate Massaro’s down-to-earth language, his thoughtful guidance on how to reason ethically, and his attention to concerns about the credibility of the Catholic Church’s engagement with political and economic debates. I can’t wait to teach this new edition!