Analyzes the structure of the modern social order and examines the Christian's proper goals of working for peace and justice.

Wide-ranging and ambitious, Justice combines moral philosophy and Christian ethics to develop an important theory of rights and of justice as grounded in rights. Nicholas Wolterstorff discusses what it is to have a right, and he locates rights in the respect due the worth of the rights-holder. After contending that socially-conferred rights require the existence of natural rights, he argues that no secular account of natural human rights is successful; he offers instead a theistic account. Wolterstorff prefaces his systematic account of justice as grounded in rights with an exploration of the common claim that rights-talk is inherently individualistic and possessive. He demonstrates that the idea of natural rights originated neither in the Enlightenment nor in the individualistic philosophy of the late Middle Ages, but was already employed by the canon lawyers of the twelfth century. He traces our intuitions about rights and justice back even further, to Hebrew and Christian scriptures. After extensively discussing justice in the Old Testament and the New, he goes on to show why ancient Greek and Roman philosophy could not serve as a framework for a theory of rights. Connecting rights and wrongs to God's relationship with humankind, Justice not only offers a rich and compelling philosophical account of justice, but also makes an important contribution to overcoming the present-day divide between religious discourse and human rights.

The Protestant doctrine of vocation has had a profound influence on American culture, but in recent years central tenets of this doctrine have come under assault. Vocation: Discerning Our Callings in Life explores current responses to the classic view of vocation and offers a revised statement and application of this doctrine for contemporary North American Christians. According to Douglas Schuurman, many Christians today find it both strange and difficult to interpret their social, economic, political, and cultural lives as responses to God's calling. To renew this biblical perspective, Schuurman argues, Christians must recover the language, meaning, and reality of life as vocation, and his book helps do just that. Developed in dialogue with audiences as diverse as college students, industrial workers, business leaders, church leaders, and professional theologians and ethicists, the book examines the theological and ethical dimensions of vocation as these have been understood historically and in relation to our modern social setting.

An eminent Christian philosopher s thought on the relation between love and justice The concepts of love and justice have long been prominent in the moral culture of the West, yet they are often considered to be hopelessly at odds with one another. In this book acclaimed Christian philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff shows that justice and love are indeed perfectly compatible, and he argues that the commonly perceived tension between them reveals something faulty in our understanding of each. True benevolent love, he says, is always attentive to justice, and love that wreaks injustice can only ever be malformed love. Charitably engaging alternative views, Wolterstorff s Justice in Love is a welcome companion and follow-up volume to his magnificent Justice: Rights and Wrongs (Princeton, 2010). profound new paths of philosophical inquiry. As opposed to his expansive discussion of justice in that earlier work, this book focuses in profound new ways on the relation between justice and love. Nicholas Wolterstorff s Justice: Rights and Wrongs is a magisterial book. In it and in its smaller forthcoming companion volume Justice and Love, Wolterstorff has gotten justice right. This, in case the thrust of my terse comment wasn t plain enough, is very high praise. Miroslav Volf in Books and Culture

What is the Word of the Lord for a world of injustice? What does it mean to hear the cries of the oppressed? What does liturgy have to do with justice? These questions have been at the heart of Nicholas Wolterstorff s work for over forty years. In this collection of essays, he brings together personal, historical, theological, and contemporary perspectives to issue a passionate call to work for justice and peace. An essential complement to his now classic Until Justice and Peace Embrace, the forthcoming Love and Justice, and Justice, this book makes clear why Wolterstorff is one of the church s most incisive and compelling voices. Between the Times invites us not simply into new ways of thinking, but a transformational way of life.