Modern Catholic Social Teaching: Commentaries and Interpretations, Second Edition

I teach CST and this book resulted a very good one. Since I got it, recommend it to my students as the basic textbook. It strength is the historical and sociological perspective, besides the theological.

In today's Orlando Sentinel [October 19, 2012] I happened to catch an opinion piece discussing Vice President Joe Biden's recent vice-presidential debate with fellow Catholic Paul Ryan. Biden described "the Catholic social teaching" of the Church as formative of his political stance. Jonah Goldberg, commenting on the debate, described Biden's understanding of Catholic Social Teaching or CST as "badly garbled." Perhaps Uncle Joe can be forgiven, for CST, more than we like to admit, is an umbrella of considerable size and complexity, with something to confound every political, economic, and philosophical outlook. Father Kenneth Himes and his associate editors have compiled "Modern Catholic Social Teaching" as an introduction for thoughtful Catholics and all interested parties into the significant texts of CST. "Modern" is an important qualifier. Social Justice was taught by the Master himself, on the value of a shared cup of cold water. In the post-Industrial Revolution era, however, there is more complexity about who owns the cup, the well, and the filtration system. Father Himes takes the lead from John Paul II, who identifies Leo XIII's "Rerum Novarum" [1891] as the first of the modern magisterial pronouncements. The editors select fourteen Church social justice documents for analysis, beginning with Leo and ending, appropriately enough, with John Paul's "Centesimus Annus" exactly one century later. The majority of the documents come from the pens of sitting popes. Some very notable exceptions are "Gaudium et Spes" from the Vatican II corpus and the intriguing "Justitia in Mundo," product of the 1971 world synod of bishops. While the texts themselves--easily obtainable on line--are not included in the volume for reasons of practicality, each receives at least a thirty page analysis addressing its sitz-im-leben or historical setting, a point by point highlight of key subject matter, commentary, and public reception and reaction at the time of publishing. As encyclicals and documents have become a prime literary teaching instrument in today's Catholic Church, it is noteworthy that, judging from this anthology, theologians are developing a method of exegesis for magisterial texts, analogous to the art of contemporary Biblical textual study. I would go out on a limb and conjecture that most Catholics have never read a papal encyclical, particularly one on the subject of CST. [Catholic presidential candidate Al Smith in 1928 threw up his hands at the mention of the word.] The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has, in fact, cherry-picked from these documents a "Compendium" by subject, published in 2004. And there is probably a catechetical inevitability in the simplification of the original documents. But this volume captures the full organic unfolding of a different teaching algorithm. Not until Leo XIII did Catholic teaching systematically and aggressively address actual world conditions of pain and inequality. Leo, admittedly, did not wander too far from familiar historical and scholastic shores, but few are aware of the primacy of private property in his thought, clearly a counterbalance to nineteenth century's Marx and Engels. By contrast, the pontiff of the nuclear cold war, John XXIII, released his "Pacem in Terris" in 1963, less than one year after the Cuban Missile Crisis. John's thinking and style--criticized by some at the time as utopian--was profoundly influenced by the realization that the ante of social morality had been exponentially raised by the very real possibility of planetary holocaust. Thus, he expanded the papal teaching role to "all men of good will," a literary and attitudinal departure that would profoundly impact the documents issuing from Vatican II. Not surprisingly the teachings of John Paul II command considerable attention in this work. Clearly more philosophical than his immediate predecessors, John Paul II's reign spanned a remarkable turn in the world's arrangement, most notably the collapse of the Iron Curtain but also the revolution in world communications. No coincidence that Thomas Friedman's "The Earth is Flat" appeared the year of his death. As universal teacher, the pontiff faced considerable challenge on multiple fronts: how to preserve the dignity of the human being in the face of rapidly evolving cultural change, and upon what principles to establish a world economy with the demise of Communist state-controlled systems. With regard to human dignity, the editors turn attention to "Familiaris Consortio" This 1981 encyclical followed the bishops' synod on marriage and the family. Its reiteration of traditional Catholic teaching on sexuality, as well as its innovative concept of "the domestic church," has obstructed its social justice implications. John Paul reaffirms and elaborates traditional Catholic thinking on the family, but at the same time he argues that every family has the right to thrive, that outside economic or cultural factors that would disrupt the family are ipso facto at odds with the divine plan. With regard to post Cold War economics, the editors turn to "Centesimus Annus." This 1991 centenary tribute to "Rerum Novarum" is remembered as something of a qualified endorsement of a just capitalism, though theologian Daniel Finn takes the reader through the many influences upon this document, not least of which was a quarter century of bishops' pastorals on matters of peace and justice. This volume is considerably enriched by four introductory essays on Scripture, natural law, ecclesiology, and Catholic social thought, 1740-1890. Of particular note is the first, from Biblical scholar John Donahue, S.J., who offers wise cautions about the uses and misuses of Biblical theology in the evolving methodology of modern Catholic social justice theology. In reviewing the above mentioned "Compendium," I was struck by the footnotes, which are nearly exclusively sourced to other recent magisterial documents. One is hard put to find Biblical source material, or writings of the Fathers, for that matter. "Modern Catholic Social Teaching" is an excellent introduction to the genre and sweep of CST over the past century. Its editors and authors maintain a critical and even-handed analysis; the bibliography is highly useful. It is the very content of the magisterial texts that will cause discomfort: there is something here to strain every conscience.

Modern Catholic Social Teaching was written, as the chief editor Ken Himes notes, in a uniquely collaborative effort that, to my mind, epitomizes the best of Catholic values, stressing individual dignity, the value of tradition and the importance of communal, collaborative work. Each is well researched, well written and carefully argues its position. The essays are an excellent review of current Catholic thinking on a range of issues. My own area of interest and expertise is war and nonviolence; the commentary on "Pacem in Terris" by Drew Christiansen, SJ, is excellent and offers an in-depth look at Catholic teaching on war and nonviolence. In the final section of this compilation, an excellent essay by Todd Hollenbach reviews the just war and nonviolence traditions and points to some directions for further development in the future. Overall, I find this book a most useful resource (I am a Catholic peace activist and occasional tutor of Catholic social teaching in my parish) and a great wealth of material for reflection and prayer.

One of the most excellent books on contemporary Catholic Social Teaching I have ever read. It is an absolute must.

Excellent content, reasonably good price and delivered a little earlier than I expected.