Rethinking Justice in Catholic Social Thought

"Catholics traditionally have relied on the definition of justice supplied by Thomas Aquinas. Yet developments in human history complicate this medieval conception of justice. Take but two examples. We now live in democracies, where citizens elect their leaders and so bear the responsibilities of distributive justice once assigned only to kings and princes. And the growing interest in restorative justice means that one-on-one injustices require the involvement of a larger community for long-term healing. Add other developments-secularism, the growth of Christianity in the Global South, economic change, the impact of social scientific insights, and a host of widely acknowledged obligations related to the environment, social media, privacy, religious freedom, gender, racism, harassment, transparency, etc. Together, they require new ways of thinking about justice in Catholic social thought. This book draws on a number of traditions, from Africa, Hindu, and Buddhist understandings of justice to Latin American theological and Scriptural readings of justice to develop a new concept for our times. The result is a definition of justice as a lived experience of communal life characterized by the freedom and equal dignity of all people and by equitable relationships of exchange and access to the common goods of the community"--