Faith, Resistance, and the Future
Daniel Berrigan's Challenge to Catholic Social Thought
ISBN13: 9780823239825ISBN10: 0823239829
Hardback,
416 pages
Mar 2012,
In Stock
Price:
$60.00 (01)A Fordham University Press Publication
Description
The book presents Daniel Berrigan's contribution and challenge to Catholic Social Thought. His contribution lies in his consistent, comprehensive, theoretical, and practical approach to issues of social justice and peace over the last fifty years. His challenge lies in his critique of capitalism, imperialism, and militarism, inviting Catholic activists and thinkers to undertake not just a reformist but a radical critique and alternative to these realities. The aim of this book is, for the first time, to make Berrigan's thought and life available to the academic Catholic community, so that a fruitful interaction takes place. How does this work enlighten and challenge such a community? How can this community enrich and criticize his work?To these ends, the editors have recruited scholars and thinker-activists already familiar with and sympathetic to Berrigan's work and those who are less so identified. The result is a rich, engaging, and critical treatment of the meaning and impact of his work. What kind of challenge does he present to academic-business-as-usual in Catholic universities? How can the life and work of individual Catholic academics be transformed if such persons took Berrigan's work seriously, theoretically and practically? Do Catholic universities need Berrigan's vision to fulfill more integrally and completely their own mission? Does the self-knowing subject and theorist need to become a radical subject and theorist?
Even though the appeal of academics is important and perhaps primary, because of the range and depth of his work and thought and the power of his writing, there is a larger appeal to the Catholic community and to activists working for social justice and peace. The work has, therefore, not only a theoretical and academic appeal but also a popular and grass roots appeal.
Given the current and on-going US military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Berrigan's work invites us to think about the justice of such interventions or, given the destructiveness of modern weapons, whether the notion of just war makes any sense. Given the recent crisis on Wall Street, does it make sense any longer to talk about the possibility of a just capitalism? Given the most recent revelations about Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and Bagram, is it not imperative to think about how torture, preventative detention, and extraordinary rendition serve the ends of empire? In light of all of this, doesn't Berrigan's call for a pacific, prophetic community of justice rooted in the Good News of the Gospel make compelling sense?
Features
- The only scholarly volume on Daniel Berrigan's work.
- An excellent example of an important strain in American Catholicism: a commitment to activism on behalf of social justice and peace.
About the Author(s)
James L. Marsh is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Fordham University. Marsh has published seven books, the most recent of which is Unjust Legality: A Critique of Habermas's Philosophy of Law (Roman & Littlefield, 2002)) and Ricouer As Another (co-edited with Richard Cohen, SUNY, 2004).
Anna J. Brown is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Social Justice Program at St. Peter's College.
