This volume integrates moral arguments with economic analysis to challenge prevailing thought in contemporary Christian social ethics. It creatively addresses both personal development and the common good.

Bayer combines moral argument with economic analysis to challenge the opinions he encountered among other scholars at a conference of the Societas Ethica in 1997 which emphasized the role of the state in the achievement of economic justice. Drawing from the resources of Catholic social thought and orthodox economics, he argues that capitalism, non-interventionist governments, and the free market can allow for economic justice.