Building the Good Life for All

The well-being of those who are financially secure depends on the well-being of those who are not, those who fall into the working poor, or Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed (ALICE). We are interdependent both materially and spiritually and are diminished by the extent to which we do not flourish together.

In Building the Good Life for All, L. Shannon Jung explores four strategies for mutual flourishing: charity, self-help, cultural value formation, and government action. Rather than theorizing on the causes of people's poverty, the chapters demonstrate how these transformational strategies work and how others can participate in them. Discussion questions with each chapter help groups process what they are learning and how they can apply these strategies personally and in their community.

Designed to be read and discussed in seven sessions, this book encourages the social ministry of churches and the community development of neighborhoods. Churches and community groups will find themselves revitalized through this study and through enacting its strategies to help their neighbors.

L. Shannon Jung is Professor of Town and Country Ministry Emeritus at Saint Paul School of Theology, studying poverty and affluence, and a Presbyterian pastor who served churches in Tennessee, Minnesota, and Iowa. He has been involved for several years with a study and action group assessing the plight of the working poor in Central Florida. He is active in the Society of Christian Ethics, the American Academy of Religion, and the Catholic Theology Society. He is the author of nearly a dozen books on rural ministry and theology of food.