Synopses & Reviews
THE BEST OF THE CATHOLIC INTELLECTUAL TRADITION For 75 years, Commonweal magazine has sought to bring Catholic faith and modern life -- especially the experience of American freedom and diversity -- into fruitful contact. Now Commonweal Confronts the Century not only marks the anniversary of this distinguished journal, it also traces the ways in which the Catholic intellectual tradition has struggled with modernity, democratic institutions, and American culture while remaining faithful to its heritage.
Collected here are many of the most provocative essays the journal has published by a number of the century's most distinguished writers and thinkers. Together they confront controversial issues of continuing relevance within both the Catholic Church and American society in general. In the pages of Commonweal, liberal Catholics have carried on a dialogue about American culture and politics, the arts, religious pluralism, domestic upheaval, war and peace, liberal freedoms, and new moral and sexual sensibilities. Here is a feast of argument, observations, and good writing that will appeal to both the religiously informed and the intellectually curious. Highlights of Commonweal Confronts the Century include:
Dorothy Day on poverty
Graham Greene on his religious conversion
Thomas Merton on nuclear war
Jean Bethke Elshtain on gay marriage
Daniel Callahan on health care
Review
Garry Wills Liberal Catholicism could hardly have existed but for Commonweal, as this eloquent collection demonstrates.
Review
Jack Miles author of God: A Biography For a distillation of what the Catholic identity has meant over the last 75 years to American intellectual life, Commonweal Confronts the Century will not soon be topped.
Review
Garry Wills
Liberal Catholicism could hardly have existed but for Commonweal, as this eloquent collection demonstrates.
Synopsis
A collection of engaging and provocative pieces from "Commonweal" magazine--now celebrating its 75th year--that represents the Catholic intellectual tradition at its most thoughtful and controversial.
About the Author
Commonweal is an independent biweekly journal of opinion published by Catholic laypeople. For 75 years, it has been noted for its coverage of politics, religion, ethics, and the arts. Peter Steinfels writes the "Beliefs" column for The New York Times. From 1988 to 1997, he was the senior religion correspondent for the Times and, before that, editor of Commonweal, the leading independent journal published by Roman Catholic laypeople. He has taught at Georgetown and Notre Dame universities and lectures widely. He lives in New York.
Table of Contents
ContentsIntroduction, by Peter Steinfels
Encountering the Twentieth Century
Setting the Scene
George N. Shuster Terror in Vienna
Michael Harrington The Other America
William Clancy The Catholic in the Modern World: A Liberal View
E. J. Dionne, Jr. The Political Crisis
Religion and Politics
The Editors Is Mr. Smith Dangerous?
John A. Lukacs The Totalitarian Temptation
Eugene J. McCarthy The Christian in Politics
John Cogley Kennedy the Catholic
Michael McAuliffe Richard J. Daley -- A Personal Memoir
The Bottom Line
Edwin V. O'Hara Catholic Industrial Principles
Dorothy Day For the Truly Poor
Budd Schulberg Waterfront Priest
Joseph L. Bernardin Our Responsibility to the Poor
Stuart Dybek Charity
Race and Justice
Ellen Tarry Native Daughter
George H. Dunne The Sin of Segregation
Peter Steinfels The Case of Mr. Y.
Don Wycliff Affirmative on Affirmative Action
Church and State
The Editors Religion in the Campaign
The Editors Do Catholics Have Constitutional Rights?
Eve W. Paul, Theressa Hoover, Richard Neuhaus, Rhonda Copelon, Ira Glasser, Janet Benshoof Correspondence: Abortion and the Constitution
The Editors Abortion, Religion, and Political Life
War and Peace
The Editors Civil War in Spain and the United States
Jacques Maritain Just War
James Finn Citizen Soldier
The Editors Horror and Shame
John Cogley Lonely Protest
Thomas Powers On Nuclear Disbelief
The Editors Is Deterrence Moral?
Thomas Merton Nuclear War and Christian Responsibility
The Editors Getting Out
Daniel Berrigan Notes from the Underground
The Editors Should We Go to War with Nicaragua?
George Weigel A War About America
Life, Death, and the Dignity of Persons
The Editors Justice for Jews
Alfred Werner Christmas at Dachau
Gordon Marino Justifying Torture
Peter Steinfels The Search for an Alternative
Daniel Callahan The Primacy of Caring
Rand Richards Cooper The Dignity of Helplessness
Leon R. Kass Why Doctors Must Not Kill
Robert Johnson This Man Has Expired
Michael Novak Marriage: The Lay Voice
Bernard H ring The Encyclical Crisis
Jo McGowan Marriage Versus Just Living Together
Jean Bethke Elshtain Against Gay Marriage
Sidney Callahan Why I Changed My Mind
Beliefs
Graham Greene On Becoming a Catholic
John Alden Williams On the Holy Mountain
Elizabeth A. Johnson A Theological Case for God-She
John Cogley The Tragedy
John Polkinghorne So Finely Tuned a Universe
Margaret O'Brien Steinfels Dissent and Communion
Reinhold Niebuhr A Protestant Looks at Catholics
George A. Lindbeck The Catholic Crisis
Gordon C. Zahn The Church Under Hitler
The Editors Misremembered
Paul Elie The Everlasting Dilemma
John Garvey When a Child Dies
Art
Willa Cather Escapism
Walter Kerr Catholics and Hollywood
Evelyn Waugh Felix Culpa?
Thomas Molnar Matter-of-Fact Confession of a Non-Penitent
D. Bernard Theall, Thomas Molnar Correspondence: Lolita
Wilfrid Sheed A Guide to Hatchet Jobs
Leonard Mayhew Flannery O'Connor: 1925-64
Rand Richards Cooper Charming Alice
Richard Alleva Spielberg's "Schindler"