Charles E. Curran offers the first comprehensive analysis and criticism of the development of modern Catholic social teaching from the perspective of theology, ethics, and church history. Curran studies the methodology and content of the documents of Catholic social teaching, generally understood as comprising twelve papal letters beginning with Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical "Rerum novarum," two documents from Vatican II, and two pastoral letters of the U.S. bishops.

He contends that the fundamental basis for this body of teaching comes from an anthropological perspective that recognizes both the inherent dignity and the social nature of the human person -- thus do the church's teachings on political and economic matters chart a middle course between the two extremes of individualism and collectivism. The documents themselves tend to downplay any discontinuities with previous documents, but Curran's systematic analysis reveals the significant historical developments that have occurred over the course of more than a century. Although greatly appreciative of the many strengths of this teaching, Curran also points out the weaknesses and continuing tensions in Catholic social teaching today.

Intended for scholars and students of Catholic social ethics, as well as those involved in Catholic social ministry, this volume will also appeal to non-Catholic readers interested in an understanding and evaluation of Catholic social teaching.

There is a long and sacred history of venerating the holy images of our Lord, Jesus Christ. At Christmas time, we in- cense the Holy Infant in the manger and re- call his humility and love. During Lent we walk with devotion through the Stations of the Cross, tracing the steps that lead to our salvation. And on Easter morning we stand before the empty tomb, filled with awe in the presence of the Angels at the wondrous works that God has done. Images of Christ have the power to move our hearts, they can catechize without words and allow us to contemplate the beautiful face of God revealed in His own Son. - Cardinal Sean O'Malley, From the Introduction

This is the first biography in English of Johann Reuchlin (1455-1522), based upon the new critical edition of his correspondence. Reuchlin became most famous as the Catholic defender of Jewish books at the beginning of the 16th century, clarifying the Catholic Church's position toward the Jews. The book contributes to the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Declaration on Relations with the Jews of the Second Vatican Council in 1965. Franz Posset, PhD, Dipl.-Theol., is internationally known as Catholic Luther scholar, specializing in the theology and history of the Renaissance and Reformation, author of Pater Bernhardus: Martin Luther and Bernard of Clairvaux (1999), The Front-Runner of the Catholic Reformation (on Johann von Staupitz) (2003), Renaissance Monks (2005), The Real Luther (2011), Marcus Marulus and the Biblia Latina of 1489 (2013), and a book in German, Unser Martin. Martin Luther aus der Sicht katholischer Sympathisanten (2015).

2022 Catholic Media Association honorable mention Pope Francis 2022 Catholic Media Association honorable mention in English translation edition One element of the church that Pope Francis was elected to lead in 2013 was an ideology that might be called the "American" model of Catholicism-the troubling result of efforts by intellectuals like Michael Novak, George Weigel, and Richard John Neuhaus to remake Catholicism into both a culture war colossus and a prop for ascendant capitalism. After laying the groundwork during the 1980s and armed with a selective and manipulative reading of Pope John Paul II's 1991 encyclical Centesimus Annus, these neoconservative commentators established themselves as authoritative Catholic voices throughout the 1990s, viewing every question through a liberal-conservative ecclesial-political lens. The movement morphed further after the 9/11 terror attacks into a startling amalgamation of theocratic convictions, which led to the troubling theo-populism we see today. The election of the Latin American pope represented a mortal threat to all of this, and a poisonous backlash was inevitable, bringing us to the brink of a true "American schism." This is the drama of today's Catholic Church. In Catholic Discordance: Neoconservatism vs. the Field Hospital Church of Pope Francis, Massimo Borghesi-who masterfully unveiled the pope's own intellectual development in his The Mind of Pope Francis-analyzes the origins of today's Catholic neoconservative movement and its clash with the church that Francis understands as a "field hospital" for a fragmented world.

This book explores the role of children and young people within early modern England's Catholic minority. It examines Catholic attempts to capture the next generation, Protestant reactions to these initiatives, and the social, legal and political contexts in which young people formed, maintained and attempted to explain their religious identity.

This book is a theory-informed, comparative and historical exploration of the notion of the public sphere within Western and Islamic traditions. It situates the emergence of the modern public sphere in a wider historical and theoretical context than usually done in conventional analyses. The work traces cross-cutting genealogies spanning conventional borders between tradition and modernity, and in particular between the Western and the Islamic world. This approach unsettles received, evolutionary views of the public sphere as an exclusive legacy of Western political cultures. The public sphere is finally reconceived as a complex platform for the modern cultivation of culturally diverse, competing, yet intersecting discourses.

This collection of essays explores the survival of Catholic culture in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England-a time of Protestant domination and sometimes persecution. Contributors examine not only devotional, political, autobiographical, and other written texts, but also material objects such as church vestments, architecture, and symbolic spaces. Among the topics discussed in this volume are the influence of Latin culture on Catholic women, Marian devotion, the activities of Catholics in continental seminaries and convents, the international context of English Catholicism, and the influential role of women as maintainers of Catholic culture in a hostile religious and political environment. Catholic Culture in Early Modern England makes an important contribution to the ongoing project of historians and literary scholars to rewrite the cultural history of post-Reformation English Catholicism.

While focusing on the relationship between the papacy and the 14th-century crusades, this study also illuminates other fields of activity in Avignon, such as papal taxation and interaction with Byzantium. Using recent research, Housley covers all areas where crusading occurred--including the eastern Mediterranean, Spain, eastern Europe, and Italy--and analyzes the Curia's approach to related issues such as peacemaking between warring Christian powers, the work of Military Orders, and western attempts to maintain a trade embargo on Mamluk, Egypt. Placing the papal policies of Avignon firmly in context, the author demonstrates that the period witnessed the relentless erosion of papal control over the crusades.

Decisively shaped by the turbulent atmosphere of war, occupation and resistance, the years 1943-1955 gave rise to a most unusual flowering of progressive initiatives in Catholic politics, theology and apostolic missions. Though suffering severe setbacks in the deep freeze of the Cold War politics, mid-Century European Left Catholicism was not without influence in the subsequent emergence of Latin Americam Liberation Theology and the deliberations of the Vatican II. This volume constitutes the first attempt to analyse the phenomenon of Western European Left Catholicism from a comparative and transnational perspective.

At a time in human history when women and men are more concerned about interpersonal relationships and when there is an extensive questioning of the specific relationship between a woman and a man in marriage, "Marriage and Sacrament" offers an understanding of how to live out the Christ-meaning and Church-meaning of that relationship so that, by living martially and sacramentally, couples can reveal to the world and to the Church the deeper meaning of al human love.

The book examines the relationship among love, marriage, and sacrament; it examines the meanings of the sacrament of marriage, its biblical basis, its history and what happens when it comes to an end; it examines sexual love, indissoluble love, fruitful love, and ecumenical love in relationship to both marriage and sacrament.

"Marriage and Sacrament" is an indispensable resource for pastoral ministers and ministry students as well as al who contemplate or are now partners in marriage."

In this thoughtful and compelling book, leading Spanish literature scholar Noel Valis re-examines the role of Catholicism in the modern Spanish novel. While other studies of fiction and faith have focused largely on religious themes, "Sacred Realism" views the religious impulse as a crisis of modernity: a fundamental catalyst in the creative and moral development of Spanish narrative.

Pope Francis is determined to transform the Catholic Church. The first Pope born in South America, Francis was elected at a time when the world was weary of the Vatican. He has been able to inject new enthusiasm for the Church and win many admirers. Beneath his smile and warm nature, there is a man who wants the Church to go back to its core values of social justice and caring for the poor and vulnerable around the world. Pope Francis - Two Years of Change is a chronicle of just what he has been able to do so far. Follow Pope Francis' story as he becomes one of the most respected figures in the world today.

The reign of Pope Gregory VII (1073-85) is critically important in the history of the medieval Church and Papacy. This original and authoritative study, the first for over fifty years, records the remarkable career of the Pope who started life as a humble clerk of the Roman church, gave his name to the Gregorian Reforms, and finally died in exile at Salerno. His reign prepared the way for an age of strong papal monarchy throughout medieval Europe.

This is the first book length study in English of the development of Catholic identity and a specific German Catholic culture in the 300 years after the Protestant Reformation. Focusing on religious and cultural history, Forster highlights the importance of Catholicism in the German-speaking lands and seeks to integrate the study of Catholic Germany into our understanding of the origins of both modern Germany and modern European Catholicism.

The Observant Movement was a widespread effort to reform religious life across Europe. It took root around 1400, and for a century and more thereafter it inspired or shaped much that became central to European religion and culture. The Observants produced many of the leading religious figures of the later Middle Ages-Catherine of Siena, Bernardino of Siena and Savonarola in Italy, Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros in Spain, and in Germany Martin Luther himself. This volume provides scholars with a current, synthetic introduction to the Observant Movement. Its essays also seek collectively to expand the horizons of our study of Observant reform, and to open new avenues for future scholarship. Contributors are Michael D. Bailey, Pietro Delcorno, Tamar Herzig, Anne Huijbers, James D. Mixson, Alison More, Carolyn Muessig, Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, Bert Roest, Timothy Schmitz, and Gabriella Zarri.