Last week we focused on the topic of education, an important founding element of the University. That education is not only found in the classroom, however, and does not exist solely in thought and theory. Notre Dame’s Catholic identity is another core part of the institution, and the principles of Catholic Social Teaching guide the university as much as any strategy or mandate.
Catholic Social Teaching is woven into the fabric of the university as well as specifically focused on in departments such as the Institute for Social Concerns. Notre Dame is dedicated to upholding human dignity and striving for common good, not just in theory but in practice. The Press supports these goals with titles on many aspects of Catholic Social Teaching, from theologians discussing major moral traditions to contemporary policy in the United States surrounding poverty. With the initiatives Notre Dame has launched on ethics, democracy, and poverty, these titles are incredibly relevant reading for anyone involved with the University and beyond.
Integral Human Development:
Catholic Social Teaching and the Capability Approach
Edited by Séverine Deneulin and Clemens Sedmak
This volume brings into conversation two major moral traditions in the social sciences and humanities that offer common areas for understanding, interpreting, and transforming the world.
Over the last decade, moral theologians who work on issues of poverty, social justice, human rights, and political institutions have been finding inspiration in the capability approach (CA). Conversely, social scientists who have been working on issues of poverty and social justice from a CA perspective have been finding elements in the Catholic social tradition (CST) to overcome some of the limitations of the CA, such as its vagueness regarding what counts as a valuable human life and its strong individual focus. Integral Human Development brings together for the first time social scientists and theologians in dialogue over their respective uses of CST and CA.
“This is a book to borrow and relish. …It wrestles thoughtfully with an issue that should concern us all in a pluralistic world that faces very serious, human-induced, global challenges.” — Church Times
Peacebuilding and Catholic Social Teaching
by Theodora Hawksley
The Roman Catholic Church, with its global reach, centralized organization, and more than 1.4 billion members, could be one of the world’s most significant forces in global peacemaking, and yet its robust tradition of social teaching on peace is not widely known. In Peacebuilding and Catholic Social Teaching, Theodora Hawksley aims to make that tradition better known and understood, and to encourage its continued development in light of the lived experience of Catholics engaged in peacebuilding and conflict transformation worldwide.
“Catholic peacebuilding has been waiting for this book. Historical and constructive, it offers a deep, dynamic theological understanding of the Christian tradition.” —Theological Studies
Óscar Romero and Catholic Social Teaching
Edited by Todd Walatka
This book explores the life, mission, and writings of martyred Salvadorian archbishop St. Óscar Romero in the light of contemporary work for justice and human development.
Many historians, theologians, and scholars point to St. Óscar Romero as one of the most perceptive, creative, and challenging interpreters of Catholic social teaching in the post–Vatican II period, while also recognizing the foundational importance of Catholic social teaching in his thought and ministry. Editor Todd Walatka brings together fourteen leading scholars on both Romero and Catholic social teaching, combining essays that contextualize Romero’s engagement historically and focus on the challenges facing Christian communities today. The result is a timely, engaging collection of the most rigorous scholarly engagement with Romero and Catholic social teaching to date.
“Óscar Romero and Catholic Social Teaching is a timely and much needed contribution to the field. The scholars who contribute bring insight not only on Catholic social teaching and tradition in the life of Óscar Romero, but also contribute more widely to discussions associated with theologies of liberation, the preferential option for the poor, human dignity, economic justice, the poor, protest, peace, dialogue, violence and radical nonviolence, war, solidarity, racism, and decolonialism.”—Sharon E. Heaney, author of Engaging Latino/a/x Theologies
Rethinking the Purpose of Business:
Interdisciplinary Essays from the Catholic Social Tradition
Edited by S. A. Cortright and Michael J. Naughton
Rethinking the Purpose of Business challenges reigning shareholder and stakeholder management theories using philosophical and theological dimensions of the Catholic social tradition. In this useful book, the contributors, including management theorists, moral theologians, economists, ethicists, and attorneys, debate complicated issues such as the ethics of profit seeking, equity and efficiency in the firm, the shareholder value principle, social ethics of corporate management, the principle of subsidiarity, and modern contract theory.
“An earnest collection of essays on what Catholic social teaching has to say about business and corporations and our role in them.” —Commonweal
Rethinking Poverty:
Income, Assets, and the Catholic Social Justice Tradition
by James P. Bailey
In Rethinking Poverty, James P. Bailey argues that most contemporary policies aimed at reducing poverty in the United States are flawed because they focus solely on insufficient income. Bailey argues that traditional policies such as minimum wage laws, food stamps, housing subsidies, earned income tax credits, and other forms of cash and non-cash income supports need to be complemented by efforts that enable the poor to save and accumulate assets. Drawing on Michael Sherraden’s work on asset building and scholarship by Melvin Oliver, Thomas Shapiro, and Dalton Conley on asset discrimination, Bailey presents us with a novel and promising way forward to combat persistent and morally unacceptable poverty in the United States and around the world.
“James Bailey has written a superb, creative and timely book whose primary audience should be the U.S. Congress. . . . Bailey’s work suggests that ethicists and economists can serve the country with concrete and specific budget proposals that might persuade, cajole or shame Congress to reform the tax code in a way that helps the poor instead of hurting them.” —Christian Century