Beyer, Gerald

Brown, Anna J.

Curran, Tom

Langan, John, S.J.

McCartin, James P.

O\u27Brien, David

Owen, Diana

Regan, Tom, S.J.

Schroth, Raymond A., S.J.

English

epublications@Marquette

Conversations on Jesuit Higher EducationVolume 44 Justice in Jesuit Higher Education Article 18September 20139 Books on Social Justice: What Every JesuitCollege Graduate Should Have ReadDavid O'BrienAnna J. BrownTom Regan S.J.Gerald BeyerJohn Langan S.J.See next page for additional authorsFollow this and additional works at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/conversationsRecommended CitationO'Brien, David; Brown, Anna J.; Regan, Tom S.J.; Beyer, Gerald; Langan, John S.J.; McCartin, James P.; Curran, Tom; Owen, Diana;and Schroth, Raymond A. S.J. (2013) "9 Books on Social Justice: What Every Jesuit College Graduate Should Have Read,"Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education: Vol. 44 , Article 18.Available at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol44/iss1/189 Books on Social Justice: What Every Jesuit College Graduate ShouldHave ReadAuthorsDavid O'Brien, Anna J. Brown, Tom Regan S.J., Gerald Beyer, John Langan S.J., James P. McCartin, TomCurran, Diana Owen, and Raymond A. Schroth S.J.This article is available in Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education: https://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol44/iss1/1828 ConversationsLet’s imagine that we wanted to establish abasic course that would pool the wisdom offaculty and alumni on what the graduate ofa Jesuit college or university should knowabout the Society’s commitment to socialjustice. I asked a cross section of teachers toshare their judgments on what is both a bestand a basic book that their students shouldread for this course. Here is what they said. Ray Schroth, S.J.Americans Are Hard to LoveBack in the 1950s I switched majorsfrom accounting to history in senioryear, when I took a great books seminarand read Alexis DeTocqueville’sDemocracy in America. After that Idecided I would go to graduate schoolbecause DeTocqueville confirmed myexperience that Americans are reallyinteresting. He taught me that democra-cy is not just about politics but abouteverything in American life. As promiseand very uneven practice, democracy isat the heart of those dreams we callAmerican. Why read it in Jesuit schools?Because democracy, in DeTocqueville’stime and in ours, is about how faith withits option for the poor might somehowwork out or even bring about “libertyand justice for all.” Christian faith isabout love of God and neighbor, andAmerican studies, beginning withDemocracy in America, open our mindsand imaginations to our neighbors.Americans are hard to love sometimes,but without them the Kingdom of God,the beloved community, will have a veryhard time coming. David O’Brien is emeritus professor ofhistory at the College of the Holy Cross. Tell No LiesIf there is but one reason for daring toask a student to read FyodorDostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov,it is so that student might encounter thechallenging yet luminous words of theElder Zossima in Book Two’s “A Ladyof Little Faith.” Who among us has notfantasized about heroically saving theworld while neglecting to attend to theunglamorous daily works of active love?What if Zossima’s command, “above allavoid lies, all lies, especially the lie toyourself,” became a daily discipline? Forme the building blocks of social justiceare found in this hopeful yet all-too-human book: tell the truth, love allwhom you encounter, and be mercifuland forgiving. Anna J. Brown is chair of the politicalscience department and director of thesocial justice program at Saint Peter’sUniversity.A Harsh RealityWhat is each individual person able to doand be? Martha C. Nussbaum’s CreatingCapabilities: The Human DevelopmentApproach places this question in dialoguewith the prevailing theories of social jus-tice and argues that when these theoriesreference indicators like an increase inGDP as evidence of “progress” this meansvery little to the billions of women, men,and children worldwide who daily gowithout the basic necessities and free-doms that so many others take for grant-ed. The capabilities approach to interna-tional development provides not only aneye-opener to the harsh reality of globalpoverty and exploitation but also servesas a call to action to any reader interest-ed in creating a more just society. Tom Regan, S.J., is professor of philoso-phy at Loyola University Chicago.Our Broken WorldWhen our students assume their place inthe world of work, we hope they under-stand they are doing something more thanjust earning a paycheck. Blessed JohnPaul II’s Laborem Exercens is a powerfulreflection on the meaning and dignity ofwork. According to the encyclical, allwork should help “to realize [our] human-ity.” Through our work, we also partici-pate in God’s mending of our brokenBooks on Social JusticeWhat Every Jesuit College Graduate Should Have Read91O'Brien et al.: 9 Books on Social Justice: What Every Jesuit College Graduate ShoPublished by e-Publications@Marquette, 2013Conversations 29world. Many workers today regularlyencounter exploitation. Laborem Exercensgives them hope by insisting that allworkers have the rights to unionize andto a just wage, affordable healthcare,and other benefits necessary to “ensurethe life and health of workers and theirfamilies.” This great encyclical helpedinspire Solidarity in Poland and evincesthat the Church stands in solidarity withworkers everywhere.Gerald Beyer teaches theology at SaintJoseph’s University.Prophet and PastorReinhold Niebuhr’s Moral Man andImmoral Society is eighty years old, pub-lished in 1932 when Niebuhr had movedto New York to join the faculty of UnionTheological Seminary. It expresses howour group and national interests shapeour application of moral and religiousideals to contemporary society. Niebuhrcombines the moral demands of theprophet and pastor, the sarcastic percep-tions of the social analyst, and the confes-sions of the sinner (especially when dis-cussing American racism and imperial-ism). His comments manifest the ruthless-ness of his honesty and the intensity ofhis passion for justice. He does not giveus a nice orderly map of what justicerequires. Rather, he gives us a compassthat swings around as we do but whichends up pointing true north. His love ofirony corrects the rationalistic confidenceof Catholic ethics; his honesty in the faceof history corrects the delusions ofAmerican exceptionalism and self-regard.John Langan, S.J., is a philosophy professor in Georgetown’s Walsh Schoolof Foreign Service.A Hidden PriestOne of Dorothy Day’s favorites, IgnazioSilone’s Bread and Wine (1936),explores something often overlooked:the shared values that frequently shapesecular and religious movements forjustice. Pietro Spina, its central charac-ter, is a disillusioned 1930s Italian radi-cal pretending to be a priest in order toevade capture by fascist authorities. Asthe poor and dispossessed seek hisspiritual aid, Spina, no longer a believ-er, unexpectedly rediscovers theChristian inspiration that formed hisunderstanding of human dignity.Spina’s sojourn eventually reunites himwith his boyhood mentor, DonBenedetto, a real priest who regards hisunbelieving pupil’s secular politicalactivism as “his way of serving God.”This book’s great virtue is that it neversacrifices moral complexity in tellingthe story of these two men’s painfulstruggles for justice.James P. McCartin is director of theCenter on Religion and Culture atFordham University.Fear’s WallsRacism is America’s original sin. HarperLee’s To Kill a Mockingbird requiresreaders to witness the results created byfear and ignorance of the unfamiliar.Harper Lee’s imaginary MaycombCounty in Alabama in 1935 providesprisms through which to study society.The narrator’s childhood fear of a localrecluse bookends the fight of herlawyer father to defend a black manwrongly accused of raping a whitewoman. Atticus Finch makes it clearwhy: “I couldn’t go to church and wor-ship God if I didn’t try to help thatman.” A country where fear and igno-rance continue to create walls, real andimagined, between races and classes 50years after the book was published canstill learn from it.Tom Curran is associate editor of theNewark Star Ledger.To Uncomfortable PlacesIn The Call to Discernment in TroubledTimes, Dean Brackley, S.J., drawsdeeply upon his personal experiencesworking with the poor living amidstviolence in Central America. This mov-ing interpretation of the SpiritualExercises of St. Ignatius presents uswith the challenge of finding a Call–something worth living for that isdeeply rooted in love and helping oth-ers. Identifying and accepting the Callisn’t easy, especially if we are set on acomfortable path. Brackley guides us indiscovering how we might choose afreer, more generous, community-ori-ented way of life. The issues Brackleyraises can take us to uncomfortableplaces and force us to question ourcore commitments. However, theprocess of discovery he unlocks canhelp us find our place in the projects ofcivil rights, equality, and justice.Diana Owen is in the department ofcommunication, culture and technology at Georgetown University.On Finding GodA child is born, and shepherds andangels visit him. His parents are con-fused. He grows up, asks his cousin tobaptize him, and finds he has a follow-ing. He tells stories. A shepherd with100 sheep loses one, and he turns allhis energies into saving that one. A richman in purple and linen feasts all day,while a poor man Lazarus covered withsores lies starving at his gate. A travelerfinds a robber’s victim in a ditch.Religious leaders have passed him by,but this man binds his wounds andtakes him to safety. A father stands ona hilltop every day waiting for a sonwho took off and threw away hismoney on a good time to return. Theyoung preacher is crucified and buried,but he begins to appear again in differ-ent forms. He meets two travelers onthe road who once believed in him, andshows them, at dinner, while breakingbread, how it is that he lives on. Luke’sGospel has several clear meanings. Oneis that we must find God in the weakand the poor, in strangers on the road. Ray Schroth, S.J., is an associate editorof America magazine; Father Schrothserved as editor of Conversations forten years.2Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Vol. 44, Iss. 1 [2013], Art. 18https://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol44/iss1/18

9 Books on Social Justice: What Every Jesuit College Graduate Should Have Read

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9 Books on Social Justice: What Every Jesuit College Graduate Should Have Read

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