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Inequality and Christian Ethics provides a moral and empirical analysis of contemporary inequality. Drawing on Christian social ethics, political philosophy, and development economics, the book illuminates not only contemporary realities and trends of inequality, but their moral significance as well. The book maps out inequality in various forms, including disparities in income, education, and health and differentials based on race, ethnicity, gender, and nationality. It builds on the theological ethics of Gustavo Gutiérrez and H. Richard Niebuhr to construct a Christian ethical approach to inequality and well-being. It considers the “capability approach” set forth by economist and philosopher Amartya Sen.

Douglas Hicks tackles economic problems as well as theological ones. This is a hard combination, and he draws both on sophisticated economic arguments about the nature of social organisation and on the implications of modern as well as traditional Christian ethics for how society should be organised and for the division between individual and social responsibilities. The result is an impressive study which will attract the attention of economists in addition to that of theologians interested in social problems.

—Amartya Sen, Lamont University Professor, Harvard University, and Nobel Prize Winner (Economics)

Hicks has done an admirable job of making economic analysis accessible to the nonspecialist.

–The Journal of Religion

Douglas Hicks has written an insightful amalgam of a book…Hicks has accomplished an important and sophisticated renewal of Christian thinking on a topic of pressing importance.

–Theological Studies