Counsels of Imperfection: Thinking through Catholic Social Teaching

by Edward Hadas

Publisher:

Catholic University of America

, 2021

Overview

For more than a century, the teaching authority of the Catholic Church has attempted to walk along with the modern world, criticizing what is bad and praising what is good. Counsels of Imperfection described the current state of that fairly bumpy journey.

The book is divided into 11 chapters. First comes an introduction to ever-changing modernity and the unchanging Christian understanding of human nature and society. Then come two chapters on economics, including a careful delineation of the Catholic response, past and present, to socialism and capitalism. The next topic is government, with one chapter on Church and State, another on War, and a third that runs quickly through democracy, human rights, the welfare state, crimes and punishments (including the death penalty), anti-Semitism, and migration.

Counsels of Imperfection then dedicates two chapters on ecology, including an enthusiastic analysis of Francis’s "technocratic paradigm". The last topic is the family teaching, which presents the social aspects of the Church’s sexual teaching. A brief concluding chapter looks at the teaching’s changing response to the modern world, and at the ambiguous Catholic appreciation of the modern idea of progress.

For each topic, Counsels of Imperfection provides biblical, historical and a broad philosophical background. Thomas Aquinas appears often, but so does G. W. F Hegel. The goal is not only to explain what the Church really says, but also how it got to its current position and who it is arguing with. In the spirit of a doctrine that is always in development, Counsels of Imperfection points out both strong-points and imperfections in the teaching. The book should be of interest to specialists in Catholic Social Teaching, but its main audience is curious newcomers, especially people who do not want to be told that there are simple Catholic answers to the complicated problems of the modern world.

Key Features

• Describes the current state of the teaching authority of the Catholic Church
• Looks at the ambiguous Catholic appreciation of the modern idea of progress
• Makes a good resource for specialists in Catholic Social Teaching, and curious newcomers

Contents

• Background and Key Ideas
• Economic Issues in an Industrial Age
• Economics Ideas, New and Old
• Government-Church and State
• Government-War and Peace
• The Church Adrift in a Secular World
• The Care of Creation
• Integral Ecology
• The Human Family-I
• The Human Family-II
• Three Concluding Thoughts

Praise for Counsels of Imperfection

A thoughtful and well-informed effort to introduce and summarize some of the main themes of Catholic social doctrine…less a scholarly treatment of the subject than a personal reflection on important dimensions of this body of doctrine.

Greg Beabout, Saint Louis University

Edward Hadas has given us a provocative and insightful reflection on the important and still-too-little-known body of work called Catholic Social Teaching. The fruit of many years of expansive reading, deep thought, and long and lively conversations (which I have enjoyed being part of), Hadas's book will provide challenging and rewarding reading for all Catholics who have an interest in the implications of our faith for social life.

Andrew V. Abela, Dean, Bush School of Business, The Catholic University of America

Counsels of Imperfection is a thoroughly absorbing and stimulating read, and genuinely impressive in terms of the (interdisciplinary) depth each topic is explored in. The framing device ('counsels of imperfection') is inspired, and wonderfully rooted in a properly Catholic, theological anthropology. This is certainly the best survey of Catholic Social Teaching I have ever encountered.

Stephen Bulivant, Director of the Benedict XVI Centre for Religion and Society, Saint Mary's University, London

Product Details

• Title: Counsels of Imperfection: Thinking through Catholic Social Teaching
• Author: Edward Hadas
• Publisher: Catholic University of America
• Print Publication Date: 2021
• Logos Release Date: 2022
• Pages: 434
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Catholic Church › Doctrines; Christian sociology › Catholic Church; Christian ethics › Catholic authors
• ISBNs: 9780813233314, 9780813233321, 0813233313, 0813233321
• Resource ID: LLS:CNSLSMPRFCTCHNG
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:27:30Z