Social Catholicism for the Twenty-First Century?--Volume 2: New Hope for Ecclesial and Societal Renewal - Hardcover

by William F. Murphy (Editor)

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."

Author Biography

William F. Murphy Jr. is currently theologian in residence at St. Edmund's Retreat in Mystic, Connecticut, after working for over two decades as a professor of moral theology in Catholic universities and seminaries. He previously published four edited volumes of essays by Martin Rhonheimer through The Catholic University of America Press, while also editing the Josephinum Journal of Theology for many years. In addition, he has published numerous scholarly articles.