Social Injustice: What Evangelicals Need to Know About the World

William Moulder and Michael Cooper have done us a great service in compiling these essays on justice from an evangelical perspective. The first three essays in this timely and important book lay out the biblical, theological and historical foundations of justice. The next seven essays address the practical application of biblical principles of justice to a wide range of issues in the global context: (1) human trafficking in India; (2) bioethics and exploitation in the global medical enterprise; (3) education and freedom in Ethiopia; (4) the care of Haitian orphans: (5) literacy in Afghanistan; (6) food production and our relationship to the land as a gift from God; and (7) membership rights. The theme running through all of these essays is perhaps best summed up in these words by Boaz Johnson: "It is the encounter with the text of the Bible, and the God of the Bible, and the Messiah of the Bible that gives true freedom from systemic injustice and slavery" (p. 89). The ten essays in this book force us to re-examine from a biblical standpoint what it means to love mercy and act justly (Micah 6:8) in response to the needs of the poor and oppressed of the world.