A Liberalism Safe for Catholicism? - (Review of Politics) by Daniel Philpott & Ryan T Anderson (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"An important contribution to twenty-first-century debates and a reminder that, for more than seven decades, The Review of Politics has been one of the English-speaking world's premier journals of political theory." --George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies, Ethics and Public Policy Center

"One needn't be a fan of liberal theory to value this superb collection of writings from The Review of Politics. Editors Daniel Philpott and Ryan T. Anderson have created a resource of enduring importance; a compendium of the best defenders and critics of the liberal state's compatibility with Catholic faith and life. It is vital reading for anyone interested in the future of the Church in American culture." --Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Philadelphia

"Over the decades, the Review of Politics has published some of the finest scholarly work on Catholicism's engagement with liberalism, democracy, and human rights. Daniel Philpott and Ryan T. Anderson have selected "the best of the best" of these writings to include in their volume A Liberalism Safe for Catholicism. The book is a virtual graduate seminar on a subject that has increased in interest and importance as time has gone on--and promises to continue increasing as the Catholic Church, which was once deeply suspicious of liberalism, democracy, and human rights, has become their greatest defender against those who claim their mantle but who consistently undermine them in both theory and practice." --Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University

"The pages of the Review of Politics since its founding in 1939 can be read as a chronicle of this partnership between the Catholic Church and liberal institutions--its development, its heyday, its encounter of travails, its ongoing virtues, and its persistent flaws. Indeed, the partnership has been fraught with controversy over its true extent, its robustness, and its desirability." --from the introduction, A Liberalism Safe for Catholicism?

About the Author

Daniel Philpott is professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame and author of Just and Unjust Peace: An Ethic of Political Reconciliation.

Ryan T. Anderson is senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and author of Truth Overruled: The Future of Marriage and Religious Freedom.