239 - Inequality and the American Conscience: Justice Through the Judicial System

Inequality and the American Conscience: Justice Through the Judicial System

By Christopher F. Mooney, S.J.

New York, Paulist Press, 1982. 136 Pp. $5.95 (Paperback)

This book is part of Paulist Press's Woodstock Theological Series. Mooney writes about the tension between the values of equality and fairness. His sub-topic is the judicial treatment of "affirmative action"; his focus is the U.S. Supreme Court's Bakke decision. The substance is thorough, lucid, and unambitious.

The theology of the abolition of American slavery, and who should pay the price for abolition, is a promising subject. Law as a way to look

240 - Inequality and the American Conscience: Justice Through the Judicial System

at such a theology is promising, too, particularly in a society that restates its moral questions in legal language. But there is more to law than courts; a better story on equality and fairness could be told from law offices, board rooms, and legislatures. And there is more to courts than the fractious, pretentious, and provincial chambers of the federal Supreme Court. Mooney's law and his theological context are too limited.

THOMAS L. SHAFFER

Washington and Lee University
Lexington, Virginia