In the company of the poor : conversations with Dr. Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez /

Farmer, a co-founder of the international nonprofit health care provider Partners in Health, may be one of the world's best-known physicians. Gutierrez, Peruvian priest, theologian, and author, is not a household name though well-known in theological circles as an exponent of liberation theology. What the two men share is delightful mutual regard, profound "moral imagination," and decades living among those locked outside the gates of the global economy. Editors Griffin and Block draw readers into a conversation between two extraordinary men with uncommon dedication to serving the world's poor. For Farmer, Gutierrez's seminal 1971 work, A Theology of Liberation, transformed the doctor's passion for public health into a mission to address poverty as "structured evil." For Gutierrez, Farmer's medical clinics in Haiti, Peru, Rwanda, and elsewhere embody the stubborn, consistent love that undergirds a Christian theology. With the proportion of Americans living in poverty either increasing or flatlining for 11 of the last 12 years, this timely dialogue provides, as Gutierrez says, a desperately needed "hermeneutic of hope." (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

This title weaves together several addresses and an interview (the subtitle's "conversations" is misleading) with Farmer and Gutierrez from a 2011 academic conference. Inspired by the theological vision of Peruvian pastor and liberation theologian Gutierrez (John Cardinal O'Hara Professorship of Theology, Univ. of Notre Dame; A Theology of Liberation), medical anthropologist Farmer (global health & social medicine, Harvard Medical Sch.; The New War on the Poor) argues that "analysis of social suffering invariably reveals its social origins. It is not primarily cataclysms of nature that wreak havoc in the lives of the Latin American poor." The volume also includes excerpts from the men's works (Farmer's Pathologies of Power; Gutierrez's We Drink from Our Own Wells). While the overall effect is somewhat like patchwork or a scrapbook, editors Griffin (theology, Holy Cross Coll.) and Block (chief adviser to Farmer) effectively give readers an introduction to Gutierrez's spiritual vision and its impact on Farmer's medical work among the poor of Haiti and Peru. VERDICT Gutierrez's theological contributions here are revelatory of his and Farmer's moral motivations. Farmer, however, communicates persuasively to a general audience beyond religious readers.-Steve Young, McHenry Cty. Coll., Crystal Lake, IL (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.