The Cry of the Poor

This book is a multifaceted and interdisciplinary approach to healthcare from a liberation perspective that “engages with the poor, listens to them, learns from them and begins a dialogical process of empowering the poor.” Martins grounds the right to health care for all in an anthropology of suffering and a liberation ethic that serves as a foundation for a community-based approach of delivering health care in a just way to all people. He challenges all people to join the poor in a dialectical process of mutual learning. Only then will health care ever be realized as a basic human right. The agenda he sets is at the same time ambitious and optimistic, yet realistic and self-critical. This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand health care as a basic human right. -- Peter A. Clark, John McShain Chair in Ethics, Director-Institute of Clinical Bioethics, Saint Joseph’s University
With this book, Alexandre Martins changes the landscape of 21st century theological ethics.  Martins interweaves the rigorous philosophy of Simone Weil, an impressive theoretical analysis of liberation theology, and empirical/ethnographic engagement with actual poor people to forward an important new mixed-methodology theoretical/theological framework for addressing the challenges posed by the material suffering of the world’s poor. Yet it is also a beautiful book—infused with a spirituality formed by Martins’ long and deep accompaniment with the people of and with whom he speaks. Most importantly, it levies a powerful critique to the academy and US theologians who have turned liberation theology into an academic theory, largely disconnected from actual poor people.  As such, anyone interested in liberation theology, liberation ethics, global health, or Catholic social thought going forward will need to grapple with Martins’ The Cry of the Poor.  -- M. Therese Lysaught, Loyola University Chicago