The paper discusses civic literacy as it bears on adult education. Civic literacy addresses the domain of intentional actions about political community, in a process of discovery and invention, the result of a dynamic interaction between practice and theory. The action-inquiry model of civic literacy consists of two theses and five competencies. The first thesis, the Social Justice thesis, holds that each person acts in concert with other persons to devise social conditions for realization of a good life. The second thesis, the Political Community thesis, holds that the civic literacy of each person depends upon the civic literacy of every person. The five competencies which permit the translation of the theses into a process of learning and doing are: engaging in intentional action; maintaining or creating conditions for others to engage in intentional action; maintaining or inventing collective institutions which can adjudicate among different intentions, consequences, and strategies; discovering through civic action matters of common concern; and testing, extending, or redefining limits and boundaries to civic action through social invention. The competency of inventive action comes full circle: it is the end which illuminates the means of civic literacy, and it is the means to the pedagogy of discovery and invention. (JR)