Back Cover
This rich collection of essays by distinguished scholars from across the globe can be read as sketching key steps on the path toward working in solidarity to build a future worthy of the human family through a new social Catholicism. These steps include a contemporary renewal of Christian humanism and of human rights, while learning to live as authentic Christian witnesses in pluralistic societies after the end of Christendom. They will also include working for a just and sustainable economic paradigm, becoming missionary disciples with a continual orientation toward the marginalized, and overcoming the plague of racism by working to build a constitutional democracy for every citizen. This societal renewal will require fostering robust movements of social Catholicism apt for our age, within which Catholics will pursue the Universal Call to Holiness through living their earthly vocations in a spirit of social friendship. They will creatively employ social media to foster apostolates extending beyond borders. In an age of “dark clouds” threatening dystopia, a new social Catholicism will require a reinvigorated pastoral leadership that has come to appreciate the dangers of populism, and the need to instead foster solidarity and incarnate Christian charity through a “better kind of politics.”
Endorsements
“This is that rare volume combining scholarly erudition with inspiring visions (and many heroes) of social justice. Each essay in this book serves as a reminder that Catholic social teaching, while solidly principle-based, is never reducible to ideology or abstractions. Rather, it is an adaptable resource capable of nurturing our practice of charity and our commitment to social justice. The reader will emerge from this volume with a thousand ideas for living out a renewed social Catholicism for our times.”
—Thomas Massaro, SJ, Professor of Moral Theology, Fordham University
“As strange as it is to call these very current and forward-looking volumes a recovery, the essays compiled in Social Catholicism for the Twenty-First Century? in fact do recover some of the priority of practical reason for social questions in the moral tradition. The effort is timely and much needed. Murphy has gathered a splendid group of scholars in these volumes whose essays offer much for students of Catholic social thought to think about.”
—Steven P. Millies, Professor of Public Theology, Catholic Theological Unión
Table of Contents
William F. Murphy Jr., Theologian in Residence at St. Edmund’s Retreat and Founder of the Initiative for Social Catholicism and a Better Kind of Politics, while also serving as Adjunct Professor of Theology at University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary. He was previously a Professor of Moral Theology for over twenty years at various institutions and edited the Josephinum Journal of Theology for seventeen years. He has also previously edited four books through Catholic University of America Press and published numerous scholarly essays.
Roshnee Ossewaarde-Lowtoo, Assistant Professor at the Tilburg School of Catholic Theology in the Netherlands. Her present research concerns how to ensure that digitalization becomes a humanizing force and fosters the fulfilment of human needs of all. Recent publications address “wellness capitalism,” economic justice and the EU’s Green Deal.
Peter Cajka, Assistant Teaching Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His scholarship is focused on American culture since 1960 and his publications include Follow Your Conscience: The Catholic Church and the Spirit of the Sixties and articles on topics including “A Military Surge for God” and “American Catholic Priests as Sixties Rebels.”
Frederick C. Bauerschmidt, Professor of Theology at Loyola University Maryland. His recent publications include The Love That Is God: An Invitation to Christian Faith, “Against Bourgeois Religion: Remembering Johann Baptist Metz,” and Thomas Aquinas: Faith, Reason and Following Christ.
Joseph Stiglitz, the 2001 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics, University Professor at Columbia University, Founder and Co-President of the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD), Chief Economist for The Roosevelt Institute, Co-Chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). He was formerly the Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the World Bank and was the lead author of the 1995 (Second Assessment) Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. His most recent books include People, Power and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent and the co-authored Measuring What Counts: The Global Movement for Well-Being.
Eric D. Beinhocker, Professor of Public Policy Practice at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. He is also the Executive Director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School. He was previously a partner at McKinsey & Company with leadership roles in their Strategy Practice, in their Climate Change and Sustainability Practice, and of the McKinsey Global Institute. His recent publications include “Is It Time to Reboot Welfare Economics? Overview,” and “Are Financial Regulations Impairing the Transition to Net Zero?”
Anthony M. Annett, Gabelli Fellow, Fordham University, and Senior Advisor, Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He spent sixteen years at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC, as an economist in a variety of countries and regions and as a speechwriter to two successive Managing Directors. He recently published Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy. Other publications include “Our Common Responsibility for Our Common Home: The Activist Vision of Laudato Si’,” and “The Economic Vision of Pope Francis.”
Matthew Shadle, independent scholar; author of Interrupting Capitalism: Catholic Social Thought and the Economy and The Origins of War: A Catholic Perspective, in addition to serving as associate editor of the Journal of Moral Theology and editor of the Window Light theology newsletter. He was previously Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Marymount University in Arlington, VA.
Clemens Sedmak, Director of the Navonic Institute for European Studies and Professor of Social Ethics and concurrent Professor of Theology in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. His research centers on social ethics, the Catholic social tradition, and issues of poverty and justice. His recent books include Enacting Integral Human Development, Enacting Catholic Social Tradition: The Deep Practice of Human Dignity and A Church of the Poor: Pope Francis and the Transformation of Orthodoxy.
Rev. Martin Zielinski (†) was Associate Professor of Church History at the University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein Seminary. He published numerous scholarly articles in the U.S. Catholic Historian, the Encyclopedia of American Catholic History and Chicago Studies, while recently publishing annotations to the diary of Bishop William Quarter, who was the first bishop of Chicago.
Kevin Ahern, Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College (Bronx, NY) and director of the Dorothy Day Center for Social Catholicism. He is the editor of several books and the author of Structures of Grace: Catholic Organizations Serving the Global Common Good and serves in leadership of several national and international organizations. From 2016–21, he was president of the International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs (ICMICA-Pax Romana).
David Cloutier, Ordinary Professor of Moral Theology/Ethics and Moral Theology/Ethics Area Director at the Catholic University of America. He is the author of four books and various articles. He is active in traditional and web-based media, having been published in Commonweal, The Washington Post, U.S. Catholic. His books include The Vice of Luxury: Economic Excess in a Consumer Age; Love, Reason, and God’s Story: An Introduction to Catholic Sexual Ethics; and Walking God’s Earth: The Environment and Catholic Faith.
James F. Caccamo, Professor of Theology and Associate Dean of Students and Experiential Learning in the College of Arts and Sciences at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA. Recent publications include “The Catholic Tradition and Posthumanism: A Matter of How to Be Human.”
Maryann Cusimano Love, Associate Professor of International Relations in the Politics Department of The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC while also serving as a consultant to the Holy See Mission at the United Nations and writing a bestselling series of children’s books. Her scholarly publications include the book Global Issues Contributors to Volume 2 xiii Beyond Sovereignty, and articles on topics including Just Peace, Holy See Diplomacy, Nuclear Weapons, Women, Religion and Peace, and Interreligious Peacebuilding.
Very Rev. Thom Hennen, Vicar General of the Diocese of Davenport, IA.
John A. Coleman, SJ, moved into pastoral work after several decades of teaching and writing focused on Catholic Social Teaching. His institutional homes included Loyola Marymount University, the Jesuit School of Theology and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, the University of Western Australia, Furen University in Taiwan, Catholic University of Leuven, and the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at the University of Southern California.
Paul Vallely, internationally acclaimed writer, broadcaster, speaker, and consultant on philanthropy, ethics, religion, and international development. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester and author of acclaimed books including Philanthropy: From Aristotle to Zuckerberg and Pope Francis: The Struggle for the Soul of Catholicism. He is editor of The New Politics: Catholic Social Teaching for the Twenty-First Century.
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