Download or read book Catholicism and American Political Ideologies written by Stephen M. Krason and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-09-26 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the perspectives of American liberalism and conservatism in the new millennium—their general political and social philosophy and their positions in leading public issue areas—and evaluates them in light of Catholic social teaching. Before making that evaluation, it sets out the Church’s teaching as it has been authoritatively set forth in documents from her Magisterium—especially the social encyclicals. It looks to recognized thinkers, writers, and spokesmen for each of the two ideologies to determine what their general philosophy is in six major, central areas: the role of the state; God, religion, and the natural law as the basis of the political order; the family; the thinking on freedom; the thinking about equality; and international life and ethics. Since American conservatism has been known for having different groupings or schools of thought within it—in the new millennium these are traditionalist conservatism, paleoconservatism, cultural or religious-based conservatism, neoconservatism, libertarian conservatism, and TEA party conservatism—the book examines leading representatives from each grouping and then determines what the consensus conservatism thinking is in each area. Then it looks to a recent platform of the Democratic party that was acknowledged to be especially “liberal” and one of the Republican party that was acknowledged to be especially “conservative” (they were the 2012 platforms of each party) to determine the thinking of each ideology on eight major public issue/policy areas: economics and social welfare policy; energy and the environment; civil rights and civil liberties; education and health care; family policy; immigration policy; human life issues; and foreign policy, defense, and disarmament. It compares each ideology’s thinking in these different areas of their general political and social philosophy and their public issue/policy positions and compares them to the basic principles of Catholic social teaching, assessing how well each conforms to that teaching in each area or if each clearly deviates and then coming to an conclusion overall about which is closer to Catholic social teaching.

Download or read book Liberalism Conservatism and Catholicism written by Stephen M. Krason and published by Catholics United for Faith. This book was released on 1991-01-01 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book American Catholic written by D. G. Hart and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Catholic places the rise of the United States' political conservatism in the context of ferment within the Roman Catholic Church. How did Roman Catholics shift from being perceived as un-American to emerging as the most vocal defenders of the United States as the standard bearer in world history for political liberty and economic prosperity? D. G. Hart charts the development of the complex relationship between Roman Catholicism and American conservatism, and shows how these two seemingly antagonistic ideological groups became intertwined in advancing a certain brand of domestic and international politics. Contrary to the standard narrative, Roman Catholics were some of the most assertive political conservatives directly after World War II, and their brand of politics became one of the most influential means by which Roman Catholicism came to terms with American secular society. It did so precisely as bishops determined the church needed to update its teaching about its place in the modern world. Catholics grappled with political conservatism long before the supposed rightward turn at the time of the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. Hart follows the course of political conservatism from John F. Kennedy, the first and only Roman Catholic president of the United States, to George W. Bush, and describes the evolution of the church and its influence on American politics. By tracing the roots of Roman Catholic politicism in American culture, Hart argues that Roman Catholicism's adaptation to the modern world, whether in the United States or worldwide, was as remarkable as its achievement remains uncertain. In the case of Roman Catholicism, the effects of religion on American politics and political conservatism are indisputable.

Download or read book Catholicism and Democracy written by Emile Perreau-Saussine and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2023-05-02 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the Catholic Church redefined its relationship to the state in the wake of the French Revolution Catholicism and Democracy is a history of Catholic political thinking from the French Revolution to the present day. Emile Perreau-Saussine investigates the church's response to liberal democracy, a political system for which the church was utterly unprepared. Looking at leading philosophers and political theologians—among them Joseph de Maistre, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Charles Péguy—Perreau-Saussine shows how the church redefined its relationship to the state in the long wake of the French Revolution. Disenfranchised by the fall of the monarchy, the church in France at first embraced that most conservative of ideologies, "ultramontanism" (an emphasis on the central role of the papacy). Catholics whose church had lost its national status henceforth looked to the papacy for spiritual authority. Perreau-Saussine argues that this move paradoxically combined a fundamental repudiation of the liberal political order with an implicit acknowledgment of one of its core principles, the autonomy of the church from the state. However, as Perreau-Saussine shows, in the context of twentieth-century totalitarianism, the Catholic Church retrieved elements of its Gallican heritage and came to embrace another liberal (and Gallican) principle, the autonomy of the state from the church, for the sake of its corollary, freedom of religion. Perreau-Saussine concludes that Catholics came to terms with liberal democracy, though not without abiding concerns about the potential of that system to compromise freedom of religion in the pursuit of other goals.

Download or read book The Frontiers of Catholicism written by Gene Burns and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why does the Catholic Church take a politically conservative stance on some issues, such as abortion and birth control, while on others, such as social programs and nuclear policy, it resembles the left? Why do some Catholic groups reject the legitimacy of Church hierarchy and yet choose to remain within its fold? To explain these apparent contradictions, Gene Burns examines the origins of contemporary diversity and conflict in the Catholic Church as well as the processes of ideological change. Drawing on interviews and archival research, Burns reinterprets crucial institutional and ideological changes originating in nineteenth-century European Catholicism. He builds on historical research to explain the development of ideological trends obviously at odds with the traditional values of Catholicism. The Church has historically aligned itself with conservative elites and governments, yet American bishops have become outspoken critics of the government, decrying its economic and defense policies. Although religious sisters take a vow of obedience to the Church, American nuns rebelled early on against patriarchal authority, becoming committed feminists in advance of most American women. Contrary to the common perception that liberal political views among bishops and nuns came from outside, Burns finds ample precedent for the present diversity of ideologies within the Church itself. Providing the sociological and historical perspective that allows a better understanding of the multifaceted legacy of the Catholic Church, he argues that the contradictions stem from the attempt to separate matters of "faith and morals" from social and political issues. Furthermore, he shows that groups havedeveloped different ideological stances depending on what type of power and how much of it they have relative to other groups within the Church. With valuable insights into the American Catholic Church, the modern papacy, and the Latin American Church, The Frontiers of Catholicism is as much a political study of ideological dynamics as it is an institutional study of religious change.

Download or read book Catholic Intellectuals and Conservative Politics in America 1950 1985 written by Patrick Allitt and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the end of World War II, conservatism was a negligible element in U.S. politics, but by 1980 it had risen to a dominant position. Patrick Allitt helps explain the remarkable growth of the contemporary conservative movement in the light of Catholic history in the United States. Allitt focuses on the role of individual Catholics against a backdrop of volatile cultural change, showing how such figures as William F. Buckley, Jr., Garry Wills, John T. Noonan, Jr., Michael Novak, John Lukacs, Thomas Molnar, Russell Kirk, Clare Boothe Luce, Ellen Wilson, Charles Rice, and James McFadden forged a potent anti-liberal intellectual tradition. Catholic Intellectuals and Conservative Politics in America, 1950-1985 is much more than a history of conservative Catholics, for it illuminates critical themes in postwar American society. As Allitt narrates the interplay of liberal and conservative politics among Catholics, he unfolds a history both intricate and sweeping. After describing how New Conservatism was shaped in the 1950s by William F. Buckley, Jr., and an older generation of Catholic thinkers including Ross Hoffman and Francis Graham Wilson, Allitt traces the range of Catholic responses to the cataclysmic events of the 1960s: the election ofJohn F. Kennedy, the civil rights movement, the decolonization of Africa, Supreme Court decisions on school prayer, the war in Vietnam, and nuclear arms proliferation. He shows how the transformation of the Church prompted by the Second Vatican Council not only intensified existing divisions among Catholics but also shattered the unity of the Catholic conservative movement. Turning to the 1970s, Allitt chronicles bitter controversies concerning family roles, contraception, abortion, and gay rights. Next, comparing the work of John Lukacs, Thomas Molnar, Garry Wills, and Michael Novak from the 1950s through the 1980s, Allitt demonstrates how individual Catholic conservatives drew different lessons from similar contingencies. He concludes by assessing recent ideological shifts within American Catholicism, using as his test case the conservative resistance to the Catholic Bishops' 1983 Pastoral Letter on Nuclear Weapons. Offering new insight into the subtle interplay between religion and politics, Catholic Intellectuals and Conservative Politics in America, 1950-1985 will be engaging reading for everyone interested in the postwar evolution of American politics and culture.

Download or read book The Catholic Voter in American Politics written by William B. Prendergast and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once a keystone of the Democratic Party, American Catholics are today helping to put Republicans in office. This book traces changes in party allegiance and voting behavior of Catholics in national elections over the course of 150 years and explains why much of the voting bloc that supported John F. Kennedy has deserted the Democratic coalition. William B. Prendergast analyzes the relationship between Catholics and the GOP from the 1840s to 1990s. He documents a developing attachment of Catholics to Republican candidates beginning early in this century and shows that, before Kennedy, Catholics helped elect Eisenhower, returned to the polls in support of Nixon and Reagan, and voted for a Republican Congress in 1994. To account for this shifting allegiance, Prendergast analyzes transformations in the Catholic population, the parties, and the political environment. He attributes these changes to the Americanization of immigrants, the socioeconomic and educational advancement of Catholics, and the emergence of new issues. He also cites the growth of ecumenicism, the influence of Vatican II, the abatement of Catholic-Protestant hostility, and the decline of anti-Catholicism in the Republican party. Clearly demonstrating a Catholic move toward political independence, Prendergast's work reveals both the realignment of voters and the influence of religious beliefs in the political arena. Provocative and informative, it confirms the opinion of pollsters that no candidate can take the vote of the largest and most diverse religious group in the nation for granted.

Download or read book A Liberalism Safe for Catholicism written by Daniel Philpott and published by University of Notre Dame Pess. This book was released on 2017-06-30 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is the third in the “Perspectives from The Review of Politics” series, following The Crisis of Modern Times, edited by A. James McAdams (2007), and War, Peace, and International Political Realism, edited by Keir Lieber (2009). In A Liberalism Safe for Catholicism?, editors Daniel Philpott and Ryan Anderson chronicle the relationship between the Catholic Church and American liberalism as told through twenty-seven essays selected from the history of the Review of Politics, dating back to the journal’s founding in 1939. The primary subject addressed in these essays is the development of a Catholic political liberalism in response to the democratic environment of nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. Works by Jacques Maritain, Heinrich Rommen, and Yves R. Simon forge the case for the compatibility of Catholicism and American liberal institutions, including the civic right of religious freedom. The conversation continues through recent decades, when a number of Catholic philosophers called into question the partnership between Christianity and American liberalism and were debated by others who rejoined with a strenuous defense of the partnership. The book also covers a wide range of other topics, including democracy, free market economics, the common good, human rights, international politics, and the thought of John Henry Newman, John Courtney Murray, and Alasdair MacIntyre, as well as some of the most prominent Catholic thinkers of the last century, among them John Finnis, Michael Novak, and William T. Cavanaugh. This book will be of special interest to students and scholars of political science, journalists and policymakers, church leaders, and everyday Catholics trying to make sense of Christianity in modern society. Contributors: Daniel Philpott, Ryan T. Anderson, Jacques Maritain, Alvan S. Ryan, Heinrich Rommen, Josef Pieper, Yves R. Simon, Ernest L. Fortin, John Finnis, Paul E. Sigmund, David C. Leege, Thomas R. Rourke, Michael Novak, Michael J. Baxter, David L. Schindler , Joseph A. Komonchak, John Courtney Murray, Samuel Cardinal Stritch, Francis J. Connell, Carson Holloway, James V. Schall, Gary D. Glenn, John Stack, Glenn Tinder, Clarke E. Cochran, William A. Barbieri, Jr., Thomas S. Hibbs, Paul S. Rowe, and William T. Cavanaugh.

Download or read book Catholics and Politics written by Kristin E. Heyer and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-29 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Catholic political identity and engagement defy categorization. The complexities of political realities and the human nature of such institutions as church and government often produce a more fractured reality than the pure unity depicted in doctrine. Yet, in 2003 under the leadership of then-prefect Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a "Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life." The note explicitly asserts, "The Christian faith is an integral unity, and thus it is incoherent to isolate some particular element to the detriment of the whole of Catholic doctrine. A political commitment to a single isolated aspect of the Church's social doctrine does not exhaust one's responsibility toward the common good." Catholics and Politics takes up the political and theological significance of this "integral unity," the universal scope of Catholic concern that can make for strange political bedfellows, confound predictable voting patterns, and leave the church poised to critique narrowly partisan agendas across the spectrum. Catholics and Politics depicts the ambivalent character of Catholics' mainstream "arrival" in the U.S. over the past forty years, integrating social scientific, historical and moral accounts of persistent tensions between faith and power. Divided into four parts—Catholic Leaders in U.S. Politics; The Catholic Public; Catholics and the Federal Government; and International Policy and the Vatican—it describes the implications of Catholic universalism for voting patterns, international policymaking, and partisan alliances. The book reveals complex intersections of Catholicism and politics and the new opportunities for influence and risks of cooptation of political power produced by these shifts. Contributors include political scientists, ethicists, and theologians. The book will be of interest to scholars in political science, religious studies, and Christian ethics and all lay Catholics interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the tensions that can exist between church doctrine and partisan politics.

Download or read book A Nation for All written by Chris Korzen and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-04-15 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the eve of the most important presidential election in decades, A NATION FOR ALL sounds the trumpet to the tens of millions of U.S. Catholics who have refused to buy the notion that people of faith must subscribe to the narrow agenda of the far right. By shining the light of authentic Catholic teaching on pressing contemporary concerns like war, human dignity, poverty, and the looming global climate crisis, this book shows Catholics how their own faith tradition calls them to tackle a sweeping array of issues commonly left out of the faith and politics dialog. Most important, A NATION FOR ALL demonstrates how the core Catholic and Christian belief in promoting the common good can provide Americans of all faith traditions with a much-needed solution to the downward spiral of greed, materialism, and excessive individualism.

Download or read book Religious Ideology in American Politics written by Nicole Guétin and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The connections between religion and political discourse in the arena of American politics are profound and longstanding. By looking at the writings of American thinkers from colonial times to the present, this work argues for the consistency and permanence of the American religious vision as it relates to political life. Ideas including Manifest Destiny, America as "God's Country" and Americans as "God's People" are explored within this framework, as is how these ideals of American exceptionalism and the "City on the Hill" have survived and mutated into the current U.S. political climate. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Download or read book The Frontiers of Catholicism written by Gene Burns and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1994-08-17 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses ideological changes in the Catholic Church since the early nineteenth century.

Download or read book Catholics and American Politics written by Mary T. Hanna and published by Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1979 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the constitutional division of church and state, the impact of Catholics on American politics in the 1960s and 1970s has been remarkable--as the names of the Kennedys, Eugene McCarthy, Thomas "Tip" O'Neill, Peter Rodino, Thomas Eagleton, the Berrigan brothers, and Cesar Chavez will attest. In this portrait of American Catholicism, Mary Hanna intensely analyzes the political influence of this enormously complex organization. She focuses on the role of the Church in providing the means for an ethnic group to challenge and contribute to the values of the larger society. Hanna recognizes that the Church is constantly striving to maintain a balance between changing social conditions and the principles of faith. In her analysis of the dynamics of this balance, she asks, for example, why the Church has had such influence on its members on the question of abortion, but has been somewhat less effective on questions relating to minority welfare. Interviews with working-class leaders in Catholic "ethnic" communities provide a new understanding of the complexities of Catholic feeling on these timely issues. Hanna's chapter on the subtleties of the abortion issue, as interpreted by church leaders, Catholic politicians, and the lay population, is a model of scholarship. This study applies the methods of quantification, survey research, and interviewing to public policy, and yields unexpected results. For example, despite Catholics' stereotyped image as conservative and antiprogressive, Hanna shows that Catholic voters are very liberal on the subject of government's role in solving problems related to the general welfare-health care, the environment, education, crime, drug addiction. She also finds upward mobility in Catholics' education and especially their income. This work combines data from national surveys with personal interviews of clergymen and other Catholic public figures. Hanna's comprehensiveness, documentation, and innovation make this a searching analysis of contemporary American Catholicism.

Download or read book Catholicism and the Renewal of American Democracy written by George Weigel and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Catholicism and the Renewal of American Democracy, George Weigel clearly describes the erosion of the center in the American democracy and the disjointed and divisive politics of our contemporary situation. Throughout the book, one finds a hope that, despite the apparent decline of American democracy, the time is right for Catholicism to be viewed as a source of insight, virtue, and leadership. Weigel is faithful to his religious tradition, yet he is willing to see in the present chaos an opportunity for the constructive transformation of both the Catholic tradition and American democracy. He urges believers to seize this "Catholic moment55 and take an active role in society. -- From http://www.jstor.org (Oct. 11, 2014).

Download or read book Rome in America written by Peter R. D'Agostino and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For years, historians have argued that Catholicism in the United States stood decisively apart from papal politics in European society. Drawing on previously unexamined documents from Italian state collections and newly opened Vatican archives, Peter D'Agostino paints a starkly different portrait.

Download or read book Martyrdom and the Politics of Religion written by Anna L. Peterson and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Martyrdom and the Politics of Religion explores the ways that Salvadoran Catholics sought to make sense of political violence in their country in the 1970s and 1980s by constructing a theological ethics that could both explain repression in religious terms and propose specific responses to violence. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, the book highlights the ways that progressive Catholicism offered a justification and tools for political resistance in the face of extraordinary destruction. Using the case of Catholicism in El Salvador, the book explores the nature of religious responses to social crisis and the ways that ordinary believers construct and strive to live by ethical systems. By highlighting the importance of theological belief, of narrative, and of religious rationality in political mobilization, it touches questions of general interest to readers concerned with the social role of religion and ethics.

Download or read book Catholicism and American Freedom written by John T. McGreevy and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2003 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For two centuries, Catholicism has played a profound and largely unexamined role in America's political and intellectual life. Emphasizing the community over the individual, Catholics have alternately challenged and supported American liberals on a variety of controversial issues, including slavery, public education, economic reform, the movies, contraception, the nuclear arms race and abortion. The story of Catholicism is also international, as Catholics and non-Catholics reacted to people, ideas and events abroad, from the 1848 revolutions to the rise of European fascism in the 1930s and the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. This history of both Catholicism and anti-Catholicism puts the sexual-abuse scandal in the Church of the early 21st century and the media's response into a larger context.