Secular-Christian Social Justice

Explores the Christian-theological foundations of modern social justice movements and how they've shaped contemporary debates on climate, race, and gender

From Pope Francis’s call to “repent for ecological sins” to murals depicting George Floyd in the Virgin Mary’s arms, Christian motifs have permeated contemporary justice discourse. In Secular Christian-Social Justice, legal scholar Noa Ben-Asher investigates the often-hidden theological foundations of seemingly secular social justice movements, exploring how climate, racial, and gender justice are fundamentally animated by Christian themes and values.

Combining critical legal theory, theology, feminist and queer thought, and cultural analysis, Ben-Asher demonstrates that contemporary social justice movements operate through four distinctly Christian theological frameworks: apocalyptic worldviews that frame social crises as existential battles between good and evil; trauma-centered narratives that mirror Christian concepts of grace and redemption; appeals to human dignity rooted in Catholic social teaching; and critiques of material inequality that echo biblical economic justice traditions. This interdisciplinary approach allows for tracing the subtle yet pervasive influence of Christian thought across climate, racial, and gender justice. Thus, Ben-Asher argues, the so-called “culture wars” in the United States aren’t taking place between religious and secular forces, but between two Christianities: one traditional and institutional, the other reformist and ostensibly secular.

The book contends that reckoning with these theological foundations is essential for both intellectual honesty and effective legal and political action. Providing a critical diagnosis of contemporary law and activism, Secular-Christian Social Justice challenges and deepens readers’ understanding of the relationship between religion, law, and politics in America, and calls for more radical forms of climate, racial, and gender justice that transcend inherited theological paradigms.