In this original and challenging book, William O'Neill explores the often dangerous consequences which take effect when an abstract discussion of human rights, justice and the common good, is either not engaged enough with the lived experience of the oppressed (thus basing itself on unreal things) or is simply off-the-mark, making no application to any actual marginalized person or community at all.

Aware of the failures of purely secular ethical approaches, the author argues, though, that it Is indeed possible to connect modern concepts of and language about rights to liberating action for and from the poor. He claims that the tradition of Catholic Social Thought and its apparatus of investigating, critiquing, and mediating non-transcendent versions of freedom and responsibility can become the link. In particular, our current global situation of political flux and social change provides an apt environment for discussion about the common good and the human flourishing it encourages. Though some say that secular rights language does not connect well with the tradition of CST, O'Neill is confident that rights are actually a kind of "latent wisdom of the tradition" (15) and a set of mediating principles between secular and ecclesial approaches.

However, the author recognizes that CST struggles to synthesize its understanding of political realities with the language of rights. This is ultimately a struggle of coherence. Appreciating magisterial writings up to the pontificate of Pope Francis, O'Neill explores the violence of civil wars and political brutalities and calls on thinkers one would expect in an Anglo-American discussion of structural injustice and oppression (e.g., Bentham to Rawls, Habermas to Rorty). The author further incorporates at par the voices of victims of political oppression and their advocates. African figures including Desmond Tutu pose powerful questions and invite vivid reflections on the issues in this text.

Extensively footnoted and indexed, the book's bibliography alone is a rich and helpful resource for scholars interested in discourse on human rights and the common good today. The work is complexly argued, making respectful use of sources one might not usually see relied on in such a theoretical work. Its forthright suggestions regarding the place of CST in dialogue with (and as challenge to) secular codifications of rights will provide direction for further scholarship and action.

The book's rigor, however, might also be its greatest challenge. In this project the author deploys new concepts and terminology to construct multi-layered arguments (or, at least, terminology used within a small cohort of scholars—"anamnestic solidarity," for one (154)). This reviewer would not recommend the text for an undergraduate course in ethics or CST. It might be too difficult to engage. But for the reader who wishes to assess a broad range of past sources in the discussion of human rights and who, as well, is excited by ever-increasing applications of the tradition of CST to difficult human predicaments today this would be an excellent place to go.