Catholics Making America Work
Grasso, Bradley, & Hunt's Catholicism, Liberalism, and Communitarianism
Ashley Woodiwiss
January 1, 1997
In his concluding essay to this provocative and highly interesting collection, George Weigel traces an intellectual and intergenerational triangulation between the mid-century work of American Catholic theologian John Courtney Murray, the more recent social magesterium of Pope John Paul II, and the contemporary work of a younger generation of American Catholic intellectuals. The putative thrust of this triangulation is the articulation of the tradition of Catholic social thought in such a way as to position it as the rescuer of the American experiment in self-government.
While the title promises a Catholic response to the liberalism versus communitarian debate, there is actually very little here (apart from Ken Grasso's helpful summary introduction) on that theme. Communitarianism hardly appears at all, and liberalism appears only as whipping boy (justifiable as that may be).
Perhaps a more promising title for the volume would have been "A New Generation of Catholics Making America Work." For what is really here is a nice introduction to central concepts of Catholic social thought (subsidiarity, the person and the common good, natural law, the image of man), some preferred Catholic thinkers (Murray, of course, Canavan, Fortin, Maritain, De Koninck), and a little non-Catholic choral support, all enlisted to demonstrate how, in Grasso's words, "Catholic social thought can play an important role in contemporary America's quest for a public philosophy."
Apart from some comments from Ken Craycraft and Hauerwas's article in general, this volume is really not so much a reflection on whether Catholicism can help America through its impasse, but how. There is then an air of confidence in this volume that makes the reading edifying for ...
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