About Orbis Books
Orbis Books
PO Box 302, Price Bldg
email: orbisbooks@maryknoll.org
Toll Free: M-F, 8-4 Eastern time 1-800-258-5838
Fifty years ago in May 1970, the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers launched a new publishing house, Orbis Books. The brainchild of Father Miguel d’Escoto, then-director of the Maryknoll Office of Social Communications, Orbis was originally established to amplify theological voices from the Global South—or as it was then called, the “Third World.” Previously, everyone assumed that there was only one type of theology: the kind produced in Europe and North America and exported to Asia, Africa and Latin America. But the times were changing.
That was only two years after the bishops of Latin America had concluded a historic gathering in Medellín, Colombia, to apply the lessons of Vatican II to their own social reality. What emerged was the beginning of a “preferential option for the poor,” a wholesale commitment to read the Gospel in light of their continent’s experience of poverty and injustice.
Maryknoll Father Miguel d’Escoto was founding publisher of Orbis Books. (Maryknoll Mission Archives)
Gustavo Gutiérrez, a Peruvian priest, was one of the important voices to emerge from that gathering. His landmark book, A Theology of Liberation, would be translated and published by Orbis in 1973. It became the foundation for a stream of books that would transform theological conversation in the United States and around the world.
Apart from Latin America, where prophetic figures like Oscar Romero were calling for social justice, new voices from Africa and Asia were raising new themes, such as inculturation and religious pluralism. Local theologies from North America—African American and Hispanic voices—soon joined the mix. From Seoul to Manila, from Nairobi and Cape Town to San Salvador, San Antonio and Chicago, Orbis authors were connecting the Gospel to the challenges of their time and place.
This global awareness would draw in more new themes: concern for ecology, the growing dialogue between faith and science, and the theological implications of an evolving universe. Orbis was also expanding its program in spirituality, publishing some of the most significant spiritual teachers of our time: Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, Richard Rohr and Henri Nouwen. In the Modern Spiritual Masters Series, it published a range of classic and contemporary figures, from St. Thérèse of Lisieux and Mother Teresa to Vincent van Gogh and Thomas Berry.
Prior to his passing Easter Monday, 2025, Orbis had published more than twenty books by and about Pope Francis, including his morning homilies, his addresses to priests and young people, his writings on migrants, on the call to holiness, on the Works of Mercy and the Creed, plus commentaries on the Gospels and his historic encyclical on care for creation, Laudato Si'.
Under Pope Francis, Orbis authors once regarded with suspicion, such as Gutiérrez and Jon Sobrino, have been welcomed at the Vatican. The pope has singled out Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day; he has canonized our patron St. Oscar Romero; he has elevated our author Cardinal Antonio Tagle to the important post of Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. But all this was crowned when we received a personal letter from the pope, extending his blessings and encouragement on our work.
None of the current Orbis staff has been here from the beginning. But we are all grateful to our visionary founders, those who came before, and especially to the Maryknoll Society for supporting and sustaining this vital mission education apostolate over the past 50 years. With joy we embark on the next 50 years.