Preface -- 1. The need for a political ethics -- The omnipresence of politics -- Science-technology and the multinationals -- Two typical examples -- A challenge for Christians -- Politics, power, and freedom -- 2. Christian responses to the ethical dilemma -- The "two kingdoms" -- Christian principles? -- From principle to program -- The search for an ecumenical social ethics -- Christian social doctrine -- An ethics worthy of human beings -- Defenseless resistance -- 3. From praxis to theory and back -- Facts and consciousness -- The question of perspective -- Sociologies: which and how? -- Social praxis and Christian theology -- Theoretical models -- 4. Latin America: from authoritarianism to democracy -- The "historical residue" of aborted utopias -- The struggle for freedom: for whom and for what? -- The faith for a new day -- 5. Latin America: from democracy to the national security state -- The invisible country becomes visible -- The third colonial pact -- National security -- "Security" and religion -- The sharpening of the dilemma -- 6. Justice and order -- The most materialist of all religions -- Hermeneutics between order and justice -- The order of justice -- The right order of priorities -- 7. Hope and power -- The realistic exorcising of utopia -- Is the kingdom of God a utopia? -- The reality and myth of power -- The all-powerful and the powerless -- 8. From conviction to strategy -- The political face of the poor -- Epilogue: love incarnate -- Notes.