The Catholic Faith and the Social Construction of Religion

The Catholic Faith and the Social Construction of Religion
Author: Peter Stuart
Publisher: WestBow Press
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2011-09-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1449720846

The intent behind this book is to provide grist for the mill for research students and other interested readers. Chapter one, by author Allan Savage, presents an understanding of the social construction of religious activity, which maintains that social construction of religion arises from a dialectical engagement within the world from a phenomenological philosophical point of view. Co-author Peter Stuart presents a classical and traditional point of view, and readers expecting academic accord between the authors will be disappointed. A further rationale for writing this book is that both Savage and Stuart desire to express their personal convictions in the public forum. Both have interests in the ebb and flow of civilization, especially as it pertains to the place of faith, religion, politics, and a variety of social phenomena, including economics, culture, gender, ethnicity, and the family, as well as the ebb and flow of money, power, property, and prestige, as articulated throughout history. They believe that writing about the place of faith and religion in French Canada is crucial if one is to understand the place that this keystone civilization occupies within confederation and its enduring ambivalence regarding its belonging, or not, to Canada.

Church, State, and Society

Church, State, and Society
Author: J. Brian Benestad
Publisher: Catholic University of America Press + ORM
Total Pages: 784
Release: 2012-08-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 081321923X

How can the Catholic faith help not only Catholics, but all people, build a just and flourishing society? The Catholic Church contributes first and foremost to the common good by forming the consciences of the faithful. Faith helps reason achieve an understanding of the common good and guides individuals in living justly and harmoniously. In this book, J. Brian Benestad provides a detailed, accessible introduction to Catholic social doctrine (CSD), the Church’s teachings on the human person, the family, society, political life, charity, justice, and social justice. Church, State, and Society explains the nuanced understanding of human dignity and the common good found in the Catholic intellectual tradition. It makes the case that liberal-arts education is an essential part of the common good because it helps people understand their dignity and all that justice requires. The author shows the influence of ancient and modern political philosophy and examines St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, papal social encyclicals, Vatican Council II, and postconciliar magisterial teaching. Benestad highlights the teachings of popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI that the attainment of the common good depends on the practice of the virtues by citizens and leaders alike. In addition to discussing the tension between CSD and liberal democracy, the book takes an in-depth look at: –Key themes of social life: the dignity of the human person, human rights, natural law, and the common good –Three principal mediating institutions of civil society: family, Church, and Catholic university –The economy, work, poverty, immigration, and the environment –The international community and just war principles “Excellent . . . The best treatment of Catholic Social Doctrine as a whole and a precious reminder of the intrinsically problematic character of modern democracy.” —Perspectives on Political Science

The Catholic Social Imagination

The Catholic Social Imagination
Author: Joseph M. Palacios
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2008-11-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0226645029

The reach of the Catholic Church is arguably greater than that of any other religion, extending across diverse political, ethnic, class, and cultural boundaries. But what is it about Catholicism that resonates so profoundly with followers who live under disparate conditions? What is it, for instance, that binds parishioners in America with those in Mexico? For Joseph M. Palacios, what unites Catholics is a sense of being Catholic—a social imagination that motivates them to promote justice and build a better world. In The Catholic Social Imagination, Palacios gives readers a feeling for what it means to be Catholic and put one’s faith into action. Tracing the practices of a group of parishioners in Oakland, California, and another in Guadalajara, Mexico, Palacios reveals parallels—and contrasts—in the ways these ordinary Catholics receive and act on a church doctrine that emphasizes social justice. Whether they are building a supermarket for the low-income elderly or waging protests to promote school reform, these parishioners provide important insights into the construction of the Catholic social imagination. Throughout, Palacios also offers important new cultural and sociological interpretations of Catholic doctrine on issues such as poverty, civil and human rights, political participation, and the natural law.

Doing Faithjustice

Doing Faithjustice
Author: Fred Kammer
Publisher: Paulist Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2004
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0809142279

In this revised edition of a longtime bestseller, lawyer, activist and Jesuit priest Fred Kammer ushers Catholics into the twenty-first century as he confronts the challenge of human poverty and injustice in the context of our consumer-driven, economically fragile world. He defines faithjustice as "...a passionate virtue which disposes citizens to become involved in the greater and lesser societies around themselves in order to create communities where human dignity is protected and enhanced, and gifts of creation are shared for the greatest good of all...." Writing with passion and conviction, he explores the biblical grounding for this virtue and provides an overview of its historical development in the Catholic community. And he brings out its contemporary meaning, rooting each chapter in concrete times and places. He concludes with a framework for living faithjustice in our time. This revised edition contains new materials on social teaching documents of the nineties, updated economic and social data and analysis, and, at the request of users of the original volume, questions for reflection and renewal at the ends chapters. Highlights: --Now, more user-friendly --Author is highly respected in this field +

New Proofs for the Existence of God

New Proofs for the Existence of God
Author: Robert J. Spitzer
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2010-04-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0802863833

Responding to contemporary popular atheism, Robert J. Spitzer's New Proofs for the Existence of God examines the considerable evidence for God and creation that has come to light from physics and philosophy during the last forty years. --from publisher description.

The Church

The Church
Author: Richard P. McBrien
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 532
Release: 2009-10-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 006198261X

“The Church is a lucid, balanced, and readable book—a work of integration that is always reasonable, well informed, honest, and deeply hopeful.” —Commonweal In The Church, renowned religious historian and Vatican expert Richard P. McBrien offers a sweeping history of the evolution of the Roman Catholic Church, its influence and power in an ever-changing world. From Jesus’s apostle Peter to Pope Benedict XVI, The Church is a remarkable achievement that delves deeply into the past and the future of Christianity’s largest branch—in fact, the largest religious institution in the world—exploring its politics, doctrines, and the way the Roman Catholic Church views itself.

Occasions of Faith

Occasions of Faith
Author: Lawrence J. Taylor
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 1995-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780812215205

Devotional "occasions" or experiences by Irish Catholics form the crux of this powerful, first book-length anthropological study of Irish Catholicism. Rich in ethnographical material, wide-ranging archival sources, insightful cultural observations, vivid accounts of individual experiences, and thoughtful scrutiny of religious questions and theories illuminate twenty years of ethnographic fieldwork. From these varied resources Lawrence Taylor creates a memorable account of the forces that shape local forms of Catholicism in southwest Donegal.

Building Faith

Building Faith
Author: ROBERT. BRENNEMAN
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2020
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0190883448

"As physical structures that shape and constrain human interaction, religious buildings play a formative role in human communities across the globe. Yet social science has typically paid them little regard. This book applies a sociological perspective to the way religious buildings are shaped by the communities that conceive of and build them and how the same buildings act back on those human communities. Applying theoretical insights from the sociology of architecture, the sociology of religion, and interaction ritual chain theory, the authors examine religious buildings as profoundly social structures with lasting consequences for the persons and groups who designed, built, or adapted them and for those who gather inside them as well as those who live near them"--

The Catholic Faith

The Catholic Faith
Author: Lawrence Cunningham
Publisher: Paulist Press
Total Pages: 196
Release: 1987
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780809128594

Surveys the fundamental teachings of the Catholic Church, discusses the church's modern influence, and describes what it means to be a Catholic.

Public Religions in the Modern World

Public Religions in the Modern World
Author: José Casanova
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 331
Release: 2011-08-29
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 022619020X

In a sweeping reconsideration of the relation between religion and modernity, Jose Casanova surveys the roles that religions may play in the public sphere of modern societies. During the 1980s, religious traditions around the world, from Islamic fundamentalism to Catholic liberation theology, began making their way, often forcefully, out of the private sphere and into public life, causing the "deprivatization" of religion in contemporary life. No longer content merely to administer pastoral care to individual souls, religious institutions are challenging dominant political and social forces, raising questions about the claims of entities such as nations and markets to be "value neutral", and straining the traditional connections of private and public morality. Casanova looks at five cases from two religious traditions (Catholicism and Protestantism) in four countries (Spain, Poland, Brazil, and the United States). These cases challenge postwar—and indeed post-Enlightenment—assumptions about the role of modernity and secularization in religious movements throughout the world. This book expands our understanding of the increasingly significant role religion plays in the ongoing construction of the modern world.