This book describes the tradition of social ethics, a tradition that began with the distinctly modern idea that Christianity has a social ethical mission to transform the structures of society in the direction of social justice. This book describes the tradition of social ethics, a tradition that began with the distinctly modern idea that Christianity has a social-ethical mission to transform the structures of society in the direction of social justice. Acknowledgments. Plates. Introduction. 1. Inventing Social Ethics (Francis Greenwood Peabody, William Jewett Tucker, and Graham Taylor). 2. The Social Gospel (Washington Gladden, Josiah Strong, Walter Rauschenbusch, and Harry F. Ward). 3. Lift Every Voice (Reverdy C. Ransom, Jane Addams, and John A. Ryan). 4. Christian Realism (Reinhold Niebuhr, H. Richard Niebuhr, John C. Bennett, and Paul Ramsey). 5. Social Christianity as Public Theology (Walter G. Muelder, James Luther Adams, John Courtney Murray, and Dorothy Day). 6. Liberationist Disruptions (Martin Luther King Jr., James H. Cone, Mary Daly, and Beverly W. Harrison). 7. Disputing and Expanding the Tradition (Carl F. H. Henry, John Howard Yoder, Stanley Hauerwas, Michael Novak, and Jim Wallis). 8. Dealing with Modernity and Postmodernity (Charles Curran, James M. Gustafson, Gibson Winter, Cornel West, Katie G. Cannon, and Victor Anderson). 9. Economy, Sexuality, Ecology, Difference (Max L. Stackhouse, Dennis P. McCann, Lisa Sowle Cahill, Marvin M. Ellison, John B. Cobb, Jr., Larry Rasmussen, Daniel C. Maguire, Sharon Welch, Emilie M. Townes, Ada María Isasi Díaz, María Pilar Aquino, and David Hollenbach). 10. Borders of Possibility: The Necessity of Discredited Social Gospel Ideas. Index.