In Catholicism and the Renewal of American Democracy, George Weigel clearly describes the erosion of the center in the American democracy and the disjointed and divisive politics of our contemporary situation. Throughout the book, one finds a hope that, despite the apparent decline of American democracy, the time is right for Catholicism to be viewed as a source of insight, virtue, and leadership. Weigel is faithful to his religious tradition, yet he is willing to see in the present chaos an opportunity for the constructive transformation of both the Catholic tradition and American democracy. He urges believers to seize this "Catholic moment55 and take an active role in society. -- From http://www.jstor.org (Oct. 11, 2014).

Much has been made of the dramatic rise of Protestantism in Latin America. This title offers a comprehensive treatment of Charismatic Catholicism, revealing its importance to the Catholic Church as well as the people of Latin America.

Over the past twenty years the American Catholic bishops have played a leading role in the antiabortion movement, published lengthy and highly detailed pastoral letters on nuclear weapons and on the American economy, and involved themselves, collectively and individually, in several national election campaigns. What is the source of the sometimes controversial political role of these religious leaders? Timothy Byrnes proposes a new answer in this lucid description of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and its activities. He demonstrates that the key to the political role of the bishops and other modern American religious leaders has been political change, rather than religious revival. Originally published in 1991. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

John Courtney Murray's analysis of the problem of religious liberty included scholarly investigations of both theoretical and practical questions of perennial interest to theologians, Church historians, political theorists, and philosophers. Murray encountered resistance from those who failed to recognize the normative value of religious freedom in the 20th-century. Nonetheless, the Second Vatican Council acknowledged his genius by incorporating many of his ideas in their Declaration on Religious Liberty. In Catholic and American, Thomas Ferguson summarizes the development of Murray's thought. Anyone concerned with the problems of religious freedom in the modern world will appreciate the clarity, thoroughness, and civility of Murray's arguments.

A provocative reassessment of religion and culture in the early days of the American republic "The so-called Second Great Awakening was the shaping epoch of American Protestantism, and this book is the most important study of it ever published."—James Turner, Journal of Interdisciplinary History Winner of the John Hope Franklin Publication Prize, the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic book prize, and the Albert C. Outler Prize In this provocative reassessment of religion and culture in the early days of the American republic, Nathan O. Hatch argues that during this period American Christianity was democratized and common people became powerful actors on the religious scene. Hatch examines five distinct traditions or mass movements that emerged early in the nineteenth century—the Christian movement, Methodism, the Baptist movement, the black churches, and the Mormons—showing how all offered compelling visions of individual potential and collective aspiration to the unschooled and unsophisticated.

Is religion a right given to us by the state? Is it an opium for the masses? Is it private opinion with no role in the public sphere? In It Is Right and Just, bestselling author Scott Hahn and Brandon McGinley challenge our idea of religion and its role in society. Hahn and McGinley argue that to answer questions over religious liberty, justice, and peace, we must first reject the insidious lie perpetuated by secular-liberal culture: that religion is a private matter. Contrary to what political commentators and activists say, religion is not only relevant to justice and law, but is necessary for civilization to thrive. Recover the public nature of true religion, It Is Right and Just argues, and watch as a revolution unfolds. Find eternal answers to today’s political confusion right now—pre-order today and get a free ebook to begin reading immediately!

This book examines the perspectives of American liberalism and conservatism in the new millennium—their general political and social philosophy and their positions in leading public issue areas—and evaluates them in light of Catholic social teaching. Before making that evaluation, it sets out the Church’s teaching as it has been authoritatively set forth in documents from her Magisterium—especially the social encyclicals. It looks to recognized thinkers, writers, and spokesmen for each of the two ideologies to determine what their general philosophy is in six major, central areas: the role of the state; God, religion, and the natural law as the basis of the political order; the family; the thinking on freedom; the thinking about equality; and international life and ethics. Since American conservatism has been known for having different groupings or schools of thought within it—in the new millennium these are traditionalist conservatism, paleoconservatism, cultural or religious-based conservatism, neoconservatism, libertarian conservatism, and TEA party conservatism—the book examines leading representatives from each grouping and then determines what the consensus conservatism thinking is in each area. Then it looks to a recent platform of the Democratic party that was acknowledged to be especially “liberal” and one of the Republican party that was acknowledged to be especially “conservative” (they were the 2012 platforms of each party) to determine the thinking of each ideology on eight major public issue/policy areas: economics and social welfare policy; energy and the environment; civil rights and civil liberties; education and health care; family policy; immigration policy; human life issues; and foreign policy, defense, and disarmament. It compares each ideology’s thinking in these different areas of their general political and social philosophy and their public issue/policy positions and compares them to the basic principles of Catholic social teaching, assessing how well each conforms to that teaching in each area or if each clearly deviates and then coming to an conclusion overall about which is closer to Catholic social teaching.