Preaching Justice - Dominican contributions to social Ethics in thE twentieth century

The struggles and conflicts of the twentieth century raised a host of ethical questions
– from the rise of Nazism in Germany and of Fascism in Italy and Spain and the spread of Communism in Eastern Europe, to apartheid in South Africa, and the problems of wealth distribution and military dictatorship in South America, on to medical ethics in the USA. Preaching Justice introduces the work of thinkers and activists who made significant contributions in their own countries, contributions which are of lasting value for thinking about social ethics.

Preaching Justice covers the work of over 30 individual Dominicans – ranging from friars who went down the mines in the early 1900s, through lay Dominican artists who developed radical social aesthetics, to a friar who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1958 ; and on to those who resisted totalitarian communism in Eastern Europe, military dictatorship in Brazil, and structural sin in South Africa.
The Dominicans discussed here were deeply involved in all the major political and socio-economic issues of their day.
Preaching Justice contains information not previously available in English
about events in the former Yugoslavia, in Poland and in Brazil.
Each of the 19 essays combines biography and the historical background with a clear account of each person’s thinking and teaching.

In the Preface, Gustavo Gutiérrez addresses the need to understand the structural causes of social evil and to appreciate the biblical and theological meanings of poverty.
Preaching Justice tells of the lives and studies of thinkers who helped draft major Church documents, such as Populorum Progressio (Pope Paul VI) and Gaudium et Spes (Vatican II).

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