This work distills Fr. Rodger Charles' extensive knowledge of the social teaching of the Catholic Church into an introductory outline of its principles. It has been written especially for use as preliminary reading material for those studying the Church's reaching in this area, but will also serve equally well as a general introduction to the ethics of decision making in the civic, political, and economic spheres of human society.

The social teaching of the Church usually refers to modern documents, but there is social teaching in the Scriptures, and this reaching has developed within the tradition of the Church. Charles gives an overview of the evolution of social teachings. He quotes liberally from Church social documents, and adds an introduction and commentary to each section of this book.