Anselm Min's edited volume accomplishes at least two important tasks. First, it provides the reader with access to eight different theologians from across the ecclesiological spectrum. Second, the text reads in a way that both graduate students and undergraduates (with some assistance) can access the material. Let me explain.

For the graduate classroom, the edited volume can serve as a practical example of what it means to apply Aquinas’ moral universe, specifically his discussion of the natural, moral, and theological virtues, to important ethical issues of the day (e.g., secularism, racism, terrorism, etc.). That is, as Min notes in the introduction, the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love “have come under severe challenges from contemporary culture during the last several decades” (vii). There are multiple threats (e.g., the problem of evil and suffering, atheism and agnosticism, structural injustices, imperial conflicts and ideologies, etc.), and, complicating matters further, these threats are located in a globalized context (vii). As the editor, Min articulates four aims for the project. The first aim is to conceptualize the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love in today's present context. Second, he asks how one may understand these three virtues relate to one another? Next, he queries how faith, hope, and love respond to the problem of suffering and injustice, and lastly, he examines what can be done to revitalize faith, hope, and love in light of the pressures and temptations that exist in contemporary culture, along with opportunities to counter or resist them (viii). What follows are the creative responses of some of the best thinkers in a field that reflects “both the diversity and challenge of contemporary theology” (viii).

In addition, I envision Min's book also landing in the hands of more sophisticated undergraduate thinkers (albeit with some modest assistance). The lesson to be learned in this context resides in how he demonstrates that the virtues of faith, hope, and love (in cooperation with a robust understanding of justice) are meant to reshape our moral imaginations and ultimately our practices. For example, Ingolf Dalferth's chapter creatively constructs a bridge between the “confession” we make about Jesus and God's relationship with humanity as a result of Jesus’ death and resurrection to how this informs our vision of the world, in addition to how we might live out the theological virtues in the midst of the challenge of death. In a similar yet different vein, Francis Schüssler Fiorenza contends that the concept of justice first must be expanded because the reader ought to understand it as a theological virtue (and not just a traditional moral virtue). Because of this, one becomes better equipped to confront the many genocides and holocausts of the twentieth century. As a result, this new understanding of justice as a theological virtue should serve as an impetus for more public discussion and collective action.

Lastly, the kind of public praxis advocated by these authors lies at the heart of Mary McClintock Fulkerson's, M. Shawn Copeland's, and Elaine Robinson's essays. For Fulkerson, it is via the liturgy that one is challenged to overcome his or her own “colorblindness” and live out the virtues of faith, hope, and love such that he or she practices welcoming all to the “Eucharistic” table regardless of identity markers such as gender, class, and ethnicity. In her essay, Copeland envisions faith, hope, and love as theopolitical virtues lived out in the lives of two African Americans in particular, Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer and Martin Luther King Jr. Thus, she challenges her reader to understand how Christian faith and love are related, and, moreover, how justice acts as a corrective to that which both revolts against love and against the forces of hate. Finally, Robinson's essay begins first by locating our contemporary understanding of terror in what she calls the “death-dealing structures of existence” in which all of us participate. She then follows by asking the tough question: How ought churches respond to such kinds of systemic terror?

Min's project is a worthwhile read for graduate and undergraduate audiences as it is a well-argued and valuable example of the move from theory to application.