The thesis to be elaborated in this paper is that the Christian minister has a responsibility of profound import in the great common enterprise of achieving social justice. By social justice we mean the greatest possible realization by the individual and by society of abundance of life by way of the most complete practical coordination of individual attitudes, social relationships, economic arrangements and ethical motives. In the development of this thesis we shall be under necessity of employing a number of technical terms, such as democracy, dictatorship, capitalism, profit economy, acquisitive society, economic imperialism, which are in current use. We shall employ such terminology according to the significant connotations which are affirmed through their common usage by informed men.
The cause of social justice is a primary issue in the life of today. The contemporary importance of this problem is attested by many factors in the present day world. The great Russian experiment is a momentous testimony, radically revolutionary though it may seem to be, to the outreach of that mighty people for a larger measure of justice in their total life. The eager yearning for a more rapid realization of social justice is assuredly one of the factors that has entered into the production of political dictatorships in the post-War world. When the regular processes of democratic government seemed to be too slow and ineffective for the conserving of what a people regarded as the essentials of its national well-being, increasingly resort has been made to some form of dictatorship in the hope of attaining that which was envisioned as the most desirable national goal. In our land the widespread unrest in the ranks of labor testifies to a similar search for social justice on the part of a large portion of our population. In recognition of the contemporary nature of the problem of social justice, we note that the President of the United States has dedicated his second term of office to the removal of the causes of injustice.