The third edition of Thompson's introductory text on Christian social thought continues to offer a clear, comprehensive, and extraordinarily useful undergraduate primer unpacking both the various threats to peace and justice around the planet and possible Christian responses to these dangers. As with the two previous editions, this work could easily serve as the primary text for a college course on Christian ethics, Catholic social teachings, or social justice, or as a secondary resource, providing students with in-depth information and analysis of questions of economic justice, environmental ethics, and war and weapons.
There are four good reasons to select Thompson's primer for an undergraduate course. First, the opening chapter provides readers a theological lens through which to see and respond to current global challenges to peace and justice. Introducing students to the rich tradition of social justice shot through the Hebrew Scriptures, the call of the gospels to reform unjust political, economic, and social structures, and the basics of Catholic social teachings, this chapter enables readers to grasp and address current issues in light of their biblical and Christian vocation to work for a more just and peaceful world.
Second, the following chapter of Thompson's text provides students with a richly detailed history of the major movements that shaped our modern world and underlay most of the current obstacles to peace and justice. This lucid historical analysis strips readers of naïve assumptions that current forms of economic injustice or political violence represent the natural order of things and suggests we can address these problems by understanding and changing underlying structures.
This leads us to the third strength of Thompson's fine text. Both in the opening chapter's analysis of the underlying social injustices of ancient Egypt and imperial Rome, and in the description of Catholic social teaching's recognition of social or structural sin, Thompson makes it clear that violence and injustice are structurally embodied in our world and that working for peace and justice demands that we grasp and address the social and structural roots and manifestations of violence and injustice. Indeed, throughout the text Thompson's analysis of various issues illustrates that moral evil is not just in the hearts and minds of persons, but baked into the customs, laws, and practices of communities.
The fourth strength of Thompson's primer is that each of the topical chapters addressing a specific obstacle to peace and justice offers readers a mini course on a critical issue such as poverty and development, climate change, human rights, military conflict, and disarmament. In richly detailed, highly informative, and lucidly presented chapters, Thompson introduces students to the history and facts of these issues, provides them with a clear analysis of the structures and systems shaping them, and suggests ways faith-filled persons and communities might address these problems.
Readers of previous editions will appreciate the current placement of the chapter on theological foundations at the start of the book, more clearly offering students a faith lens through which to see both the rest of the text and the current challenges to working for peace and justice. Another significant improvement is the reworking of the chapter addressing climate change, enlarging the scope and updating the research and analysis on this critical issue.
Having used the previous two editions as a required text for nearly two decades, this reviewer is delighted to see the current updated text and will employ it for years to come. And though thousands of previous students commented on how much information is in these editions, the real power of this primer as an introduction to Christian social thought is to be found in the method Thompson models for seeing, judging, and acting as believers called to work for peace and justice. Embedded in this richly informative text is a practice of social analysis informed by a faith perspective that is willing to look long, lovingly, and hard at our world, analyze the history and structures that brought us to the present situation, and imagine what our biblical vocation to work for peace and justice demands of us in the present moment.
