--- product_id: 806213359 title: "Modern Catholic Social Teaching: Commentaries and Interpretations, Second Edition" price: "COP 88225" currency: COP in_stock: false reviews_count: 5 url: https://www.desertcart.co/products/806213359-modern-catholic-social-teaching-commentaries-and-interpretations-second-edition store_origin: CO region: Colombia --- # Modern Catholic Social Teaching: Commentaries and Interpretations, Second Edition **Price:** COP 88225 **Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Modern Catholic Social Teaching: Commentaries and Interpretations, Second Edition - **How much does it cost?** COP 88225 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Currently out of stock - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co](https://www.desertcart.co/products/806213359-modern-catholic-social-teaching-commentaries-and-interpretations-second-edition) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Including contributions from twenty-two leading moral theologians, this volume is the most thorough assessment of modern Roman Catholic social teaching available. In addition to interrogations of the major documents, it provides insight into the biblical and philosophical foundations of Catholic social teaching, addresses the doctrinal issues that arise in such a context, and explores the social thought leading up to the "modern" era, which is generally accepted as beginning in 1891 with the publication of Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum . The book also includes a review of how Catholic social teaching has been received in the United States and offers an informed look at the shortcomings and questions that future generations must address. This second edition includes revised and updated essays as well as two new commentaries: one on Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Caritas in Veritate and one on Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato Si' . An outstanding reference work for anyone interested in studying and understanding the key documents that make up the central corpus of modern Catholic social teaching. Review: A good book - I teach CST and this book resulted a very good one. Since I got it, recommend it to my students as the basic textbook. It strength is the historical and sociological perspective, besides the theological. Review: Something to Trouble Every Conscience - In today's Orlando Sentinel [October 19, 2012] I happened to catch an opinion piece discussing Vice President Joe Biden's recent vice-presidential debate with fellow Catholic Paul Ryan. Biden described "the Catholic social teaching" of the Church as formative of his political stance. Jonah Goldberg, commenting on the debate, described Biden's understanding of Catholic Social Teaching or CST as "badly garbled." Perhaps Uncle Joe can be forgiven, for CST, more than we like to admit, is an umbrella of considerable size and complexity, with something to confound every political, economic, and philosophical outlook. Father Kenneth Himes and his associate editors have compiled "Modern Catholic Social Teaching" as an introduction for thoughtful Catholics and all interested parties into the significant texts of CST. "Modern" is an important qualifier. Social Justice was taught by the Master himself, on the value of a shared cup of cold water. In the post-Industrial Revolution era, however, there is more complexity about who owns the cup, the well, and the filtration system. Father Himes takes the lead from John Paul II, who identifies Leo XIII's "Rerum Novarum" [1891] as the first of the modern magisterial pronouncements. The editors select fourteen Church social justice documents for analysis, beginning with Leo and ending, appropriately enough, with John Paul's "Centesimus Annus" exactly one century later. The majority of the documents come from the pens of sitting popes. Some very notable exceptions are "Gaudium et Spes" from the Vatican II corpus and the intriguing "Justitia in Mundo," product of the 1971 world synod of bishops. While the texts themselves--easily obtainable on line--are not included in the volume for reasons of practicality, each receives at least a thirty page analysis addressing its sitz-im-leben or historical setting, a point by point highlight of key subject matter, commentary, and public reception and reaction at the time of publishing. As encyclicals and documents have become a prime literary teaching instrument in today's Catholic Church, it is noteworthy that, judging from this anthology, theologians are developing a method of exegesis for magisterial texts, analogous to the art of contemporary Biblical textual study. I would go out on a limb and conjecture that most Catholics have never read a papal encyclical, particularly one on the subject of CST. [Catholic presidential candidate Al Smith in 1928 threw up his hands at the mention of the word.] The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has, in fact, cherry-picked from these documents a "Compendium" by subject, published in 2004. And there is probably a catechetical inevitability in the simplification of the original documents. But this volume captures the full organic unfolding of a different teaching algorithm. Not until Leo XIII did Catholic teaching systematically and aggressively address actual world conditions of pain and inequality. Leo, admittedly, did not wander too far from familiar historical and scholastic shores, but few are aware of the primacy of private property in his thought, clearly a counterbalance to nineteenth century's Marx and Engels. By contrast, the pontiff of the nuclear cold war, John XXIII, released his "Pacem in Terris" in 1963, less than one year after the Cuban Missile Crisis. John's thinking and style--criticized by some at the time as utopian--was profoundly influenced by the realization that the ante of social morality had been exponentially raised by the very real possibility of planetary holocaust. Thus, he expanded the papal teaching role to "all men of good will," a literary and attitudinal departure that would profoundly impact the documents issuing from Vatican II. Not surprisingly the teachings of John Paul II command considerable attention in this work. Clearly more philosophical than his immediate predecessors, John Paul II's reign spanned a remarkable turn in the world's arrangement, most notably the collapse of the Iron Curtain but also the revolution in world communications. No coincidence that Thomas Friedman's "The Earth is Flat" appeared the year of his death. As universal teacher, the pontiff faced considerable challenge on multiple fronts: how to preserve the dignity of the human being in the face of rapidly evolving cultural change, and upon what principles to establish a world economy with the demise of Communist state-controlled systems. With regard to human dignity, the editors turn attention to "Familiaris Consortio" This 1981 encyclical followed the bishops' synod on marriage and the family. Its reiteration of traditional Catholic teaching on sexuality, as well as its innovative concept of "the domestic church," has obstructed its social justice implications. John Paul reaffirms and elaborates traditional Catholic thinking on the family, but at the same time he argues that every family has the right to thrive, that outside economic or cultural factors that would disrupt the family are ipso facto at odds with the divine plan. With regard to post Cold War economics, the editors turn to "Centesimus Annus." This 1991 centenary tribute to "Rerum Novarum" is remembered as something of a qualified endorsement of a just capitalism, though theologian Daniel Finn takes the reader through the many influences upon this document, not least of which was a quarter century of bishops' pastorals on matters of peace and justice. This volume is considerably enriched by four introductory essays on Scripture, natural law, ecclesiology, and Catholic social thought, 1740-1890. Of particular note is the first, from Biblical scholar John Donahue, S.J., who offers wise cautions about the uses and misuses of Biblical theology in the evolving methodology of modern Catholic social justice theology. In reviewing the above mentioned "Compendium," I was struck by the footnotes, which are nearly exclusively sourced to other recent magisterial documents. One is hard put to find Biblical source material, or writings of the Fathers, for that matter. "Modern Catholic Social Teaching" is an excellent introduction to the genre and sweep of CST over the past century. Its editors and authors maintain a critical and even-handed analysis; the bibliography is highly useful. It is the very content of the magisterial texts that will cause discomfort: there is something here to strain every conscience. ## Features - Highlight, take notes and search in the book ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | 1,394,664 in Kindle Store ( See Top 100 in Kindle Store ) 1,703 in Ethics & Moral Teaching in Christian Theology 3,435 in Catholicism 3,725 in Religious Studies (Kindle Store) | ## Images ![Modern Catholic Social Teaching: Commentaries and Interpretations, Second Edition - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A1-pAmgz6TL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A good book *by J***S on 5 July 2022* I teach CST and this book resulted a very good one. Since I got it, recommend it to my students as the basic textbook. It strength is the historical and sociological perspective, besides the theological. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Something to Trouble Every Conscience *by T***S on 19 October 2012* In today's Orlando Sentinel [October 19, 2012] I happened to catch an opinion piece discussing Vice President Joe Biden's recent vice-presidential debate with fellow Catholic Paul Ryan. Biden described "the Catholic social teaching" of the Church as formative of his political stance. Jonah Goldberg, commenting on the debate, described Biden's understanding of Catholic Social Teaching or CST as "badly garbled." Perhaps Uncle Joe can be forgiven, for CST, more than we like to admit, is an umbrella of considerable size and complexity, with something to confound every political, economic, and philosophical outlook. Father Kenneth Himes and his associate editors have compiled "Modern Catholic Social Teaching" as an introduction for thoughtful Catholics and all interested parties into the significant texts of CST. "Modern" is an important qualifier. Social Justice was taught by the Master himself, on the value of a shared cup of cold water. In the post-Industrial Revolution era, however, there is more complexity about who owns the cup, the well, and the filtration system. Father Himes takes the lead from John Paul II, who identifies Leo XIII's "Rerum Novarum" [1891] as the first of the modern magisterial pronouncements. The editors select fourteen Church social justice documents for analysis, beginning with Leo and ending, appropriately enough, with John Paul's "Centesimus Annus" exactly one century later. The majority of the documents come from the pens of sitting popes. Some very notable exceptions are "Gaudium et Spes" from the Vatican II corpus and the intriguing "Justitia in Mundo," product of the 1971 world synod of bishops. While the texts themselves--easily obtainable on line--are not included in the volume for reasons of practicality, each receives at least a thirty page analysis addressing its sitz-im-leben or historical setting, a point by point highlight of key subject matter, commentary, and public reception and reaction at the time of publishing. As encyclicals and documents have become a prime literary teaching instrument in today's Catholic Church, it is noteworthy that, judging from this anthology, theologians are developing a method of exegesis for magisterial texts, analogous to the art of contemporary Biblical textual study. I would go out on a limb and conjecture that most Catholics have never read a papal encyclical, particularly one on the subject of CST. [Catholic presidential candidate Al Smith in 1928 threw up his hands at the mention of the word.] The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has, in fact, cherry-picked from these documents a "Compendium" by subject, published in 2004. And there is probably a catechetical inevitability in the simplification of the original documents. But this volume captures the full organic unfolding of a different teaching algorithm. Not until Leo XIII did Catholic teaching systematically and aggressively address actual world conditions of pain and inequality. Leo, admittedly, did not wander too far from familiar historical and scholastic shores, but few are aware of the primacy of private property in his thought, clearly a counterbalance to nineteenth century's Marx and Engels. By contrast, the pontiff of the nuclear cold war, John XXIII, released his "Pacem in Terris" in 1963, less than one year after the Cuban Missile Crisis. John's thinking and style--criticized by some at the time as utopian--was profoundly influenced by the realization that the ante of social morality had been exponentially raised by the very real possibility of planetary holocaust. Thus, he expanded the papal teaching role to "all men of good will," a literary and attitudinal departure that would profoundly impact the documents issuing from Vatican II. Not surprisingly the teachings of John Paul II command considerable attention in this work. Clearly more philosophical than his immediate predecessors, John Paul II's reign spanned a remarkable turn in the world's arrangement, most notably the collapse of the Iron Curtain but also the revolution in world communications. No coincidence that Thomas Friedman's "The Earth is Flat" appeared the year of his death. As universal teacher, the pontiff faced considerable challenge on multiple fronts: how to preserve the dignity of the human being in the face of rapidly evolving cultural change, and upon what principles to establish a world economy with the demise of Communist state-controlled systems. With regard to human dignity, the editors turn attention to "Familiaris Consortio" This 1981 encyclical followed the bishops' synod on marriage and the family. Its reiteration of traditional Catholic teaching on sexuality, as well as its innovative concept of "the domestic church," has obstructed its social justice implications. John Paul reaffirms and elaborates traditional Catholic thinking on the family, but at the same time he argues that every family has the right to thrive, that outside economic or cultural factors that would disrupt the family are ipso facto at odds with the divine plan. With regard to post Cold War economics, the editors turn to "Centesimus Annus." This 1991 centenary tribute to "Rerum Novarum" is remembered as something of a qualified endorsement of a just capitalism, though theologian Daniel Finn takes the reader through the many influences upon this document, not least of which was a quarter century of bishops' pastorals on matters of peace and justice. This volume is considerably enriched by four introductory essays on Scripture, natural law, ecclesiology, and Catholic social thought, 1740-1890. Of particular note is the first, from Biblical scholar John Donahue, S.J., who offers wise cautions about the uses and misuses of Biblical theology in the evolving methodology of modern Catholic social justice theology. In reviewing the above mentioned "Compendium," I was struck by the footnotes, which are nearly exclusively sourced to other recent magisterial documents. One is hard put to find Biblical source material, or writings of the Fathers, for that matter. "Modern Catholic Social Teaching" is an excellent introduction to the genre and sweep of CST over the past century. Its editors and authors maintain a critical and even-handed analysis; the bibliography is highly useful. It is the very content of the magisterial texts that will cause discomfort: there is something here to strain every conscience. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Modern Catholic Social Teaching: Content and Method Converge *by N***E on 9 November 2006* Modern Catholic Social Teaching was written, as the chief editor Ken Himes notes, in a uniquely collaborative effort that, to my mind, epitomizes the best of Catholic values, stressing individual dignity, the value of tradition and the importance of communal, collaborative work. Each is well researched, well written and carefully argues its position. The essays are an excellent review of current Catholic thinking on a range of issues. My own area of interest and expertise is war and nonviolence; the commentary on "Pacem in Terris" by Drew Christiansen, SJ, is excellent and offers an in-depth look at Catholic teaching on war and nonviolence. In the final section of this compilation, an excellent essay by Todd Hollenbach reviews the just war and nonviolence traditions and points to some directions for further development in the future. Overall, I find this book a most useful resource (I am a Catholic peace activist and occasional tutor of Catholic social teaching in my parish) and a great wealth of material for reflection and prayer. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co/products/806213359-modern-catholic-social-teaching-commentaries-and-interpretations-second-edition](https://www.desertcart.co/products/806213359-modern-catholic-social-teaching-commentaries-and-interpretations-second-edition) --- *Product available on Desertcart Colombia* *Store origin: CO* *Last updated: 2026-06-02*