Eight Theories of Justice: Perspectives from Philosophical and Theological Ethics

There may be no more urgent cry than that for justice–and no more frequent accusation than that of injustice. But what is meant when these terms are used? Since its initial publication nearly forty years ago, Karen Lebacqz's Six Theories of Justice has been the go-to guide for answering this question. But today, the matters upon which it touches are even more acute.

Eight Theories of Justice offers a major update and expansion of the earlier text. Together with coauthor Matthew J. Gaudet, Lebacqz presents the major alternative views of justice, including John Stuart Mill's utilitarianism, the contract system of John Rawls, the entitlement views of Robert Nozick, and the communitarian ideas of Michael Sandel. These political and philosophicalaccounts of justice are supplemented with analysis of major theological approaches: Pope Francis and Catholic social teaching, Reinhold Niebuhr and Christian realism, the Black liberation theology of James Cone, and Katie Cannon's womanist ethics. Each chapter introduces the major elements of each theory, presents the best critiques of each theory, and offers an assessment of their value for living justly in the modern world.