Abstract

This interdisciplinary dissertation develops a framework for understanding and responding to recent forms of socioeconomic inequality in international and domestic U.S. contexts. I draw on development economics, political philosophy, and Christian theological ethics to craft a "theologically informed approach" to socioeconomic life that emphasizes distributional factors in public debates about well-being and development. ;In the first part of the dissertation, I examine two discussions within political philosophy--on the meaning of moral and social equality and on the role of religion in public life--as a way of framing my constructive project. In addition, I present a critical analysis of the current state and trends of inequality in various international and U.S. contexts. I emphasize the multiplicity of dimensions in which deprivation and disparity occur, moving on to provide an empirical overview of these various forms of inequality. ;In the second part, I draw principally upon H. Richard Niebuhr and Gustavo Gutierrez to construct a theologically informed approach to inequalities in which the equality before God is a central concept and commitment. The writings of Amartya Sen, Michael Walzer, and Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza also inform my perspective. The approach emphasizes the social-relational character of full and equal personhood and the significance of relative factors in persons' attainment of basic social "functionings." An equality of "basic capability" is shown to be a necessary condition for genuine solidarity. ;In the final part, I suggest that my approach provides moral vision for a society marked by full personhood and social solidarity, and it includes a moral call for transformative action toward such a society. More specific to policy debates, I offer four "axes" along which discussions about inequality can be delineated and therefore expanded. As one example, I present an "Inequality-Adjusted Human Development Index" for measuring development and well-being. ;This dissertation shows by example how a theologically informed perspective can make a distinctive contribution to public discourse about important social questions, concluding that moral perspectives on why inequality matters can be combined with policy-oriented analyses in order to effect positive social transformation