Medical anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer is the Kolokotrones University Professor, Harvard University; Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School; and a founding director of Partners in Health (PIH), an international non-profit organization that provides direct health care services and undertakes research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. Dr. Farmer is also the UN Deputy Special Envoy for Haiti, under Special Envoy Bill Clinton. Aside from his own many books, he is the subject of Tracy Kidder's Pulitzer-Prize-winning book, Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer.

Gustavo Gutiérrez, a Dominican theologian from Peru, is widely recognized as one of the preeminent voices of liberation theology. His books include A Theology of Liberation, On Job, We Drink from Our Own Wells, and The God of Life.

Jennie Weiss Block, OP, serves as Chief Advisor to Dr. Paul Farmer.

Michael Griffin teaches theology at Holy Cross College in Notre Dame, Indiana.

This book reflects intersection between the lives, commitments, and strategies of two highly respected figures Dr. Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez joined in their option for the poor, their defense of life, and their commitment to liberation. Farmer has credited liberation theology as the inspiration for his effort to do social justice medicine, while Gutierrez has recognized Farmer's work as particularly compelling example of the option for the poor, and the impact that theology can have outside the church. Draws on their respective writings, major addresses by both at Notre Dame, and a transcript of a dialogue between them.