Practical Justice: A Critique on Christian Spirituality

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a) In Kevin Blue’s book, Practical Justice, the author expresses three main concerns in the book. In my opinion, the first concern is spread out through chapters 1 through 3, second concern is spread out through chapters 4 through 6 and the last concern is spread out through chapters 7 through 11. The first main concern addressed in the book is the failure to help those in need. Blue states that “love of money, individualism, materialism and consumerism have polluted our Christian spirituality” (p. 22). Most importantly, Blue states that the world has trained us away from helping those in need. Furthermore, Blue states that “the world’s influence on us is not neutral. It trains us not to love, not to be concern for the well-being of another …show more content…

75), “business practices” (p. 79), “other forms of discrimination” (p. 81), and “foreign policy” (p. 86). Blue divides “call justice ministry into three categories” (p. 51). The first category is “direct relief” (p. 51). The second category is “provision of skills” (p. 51). The third category is “addressing systemic injustice that exploits the poor and even encourages poverty” (p. 52). Blue discusses ways to help those in need by providing direct relief and teaching people how to fish. However, the author suggests that the direct relief and provision of skills would be ineffective without changing the systemic failures in the society. Blue states that “sometimes we can help deal with an immediate crisis for an individual or group of people, and we can provide the skills necessary to improve their situation in the long run and gain a means of support, but there are other factors that can prevent them from becoming successful and self-supporting” (p. 71). Furthermore, Blue suggests that “if we are to actually deal with the root causes of poverty, some of our work will have to be done at the systemic or environmental level” (p. 71). Therefore, the author seeks for systemic change in the

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