Catholic Social Justice: Theological and Practical Explorations

Published in association with Caritas (the Catholic Church’s agency for social justice) this book draws together a distinguished panel of academics and practitioners involved in the area of social justice. Combining theory and practice, the book explores issues facing the church and its role in today’s society and the relationship between Theology, Social Justice and Social Spirituality. The book looks at how the church identifies its social priorities today, allocates its resource, shapes, facilitates and governs its practices, relates to and seeks to influence civil and secular society. In today’s climate, the emerging relationship between religion and society is a matter of intense public interest and the book will also address the role of the church/faith in public life. The book also raises questions related to the nature of social ethics and social spirituality today. Particular problems and challenges pose pertinent questions both in relation to the church and society, and these also demand theological reflection, dialogue and exploration. Such themes include human liberation and freedom, globalisation, marginalisation, the changing anthropological bases of social ethics, as well as theological attempts to understand how the worlds of work and leisure relate to human being in both its individual and communal contexts.

Philomena Cullen is the Social Policy Co-ordinator of Caritas-Social Action in England and Wales, UK. Trained in theology, philosophy and social studies, she is also a qualified social worker. She was educated at New College, Oxford University and at Durham University, UK. Bernard Hoose lectures in Christian Ethics at Heythrop College, University of London, UK. His publications include Proportionalism: The American Debate and its European Roots, (Georgetown University Press) 1987, Received Wisdom? Reviewing the Role of Tradition in Christian Ethics (Geoffrey Chapman, 1994). He is editor of Christian Ethics: An Introduction (Cassell, 1998), Authority in the Roman Catholic Church (Ashgate, 2002) and Authority in Roman Catholicism (Matthew James, 2002). He presently serves on the Theology Commission of Caritas-Social Action.

Gerard Mannion is Director of the Centre for Catholic Thought and Culture and Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego, USA.