A timely new work by one of France’s premier philosophers, A Brief Apology for a Catholic Moment offers insight into what “catholic” truly means. In this short, accessible book, Jean-Luc Marion braids the sense of catholic as all-embracing and universal into conversation about what it is to be Catholic in the present moment. A Brief Apology for a Catholic Moment tackles complex issues surrounding church-state separation and addresses a larger Catholic audience that transcends national boundaries, social identities, and linguistic differences. Marion insists that Catholic universalism, with its core of communion and community, is not an outmoded worldview, but rather an outlook that has the potential to counter the positivist rationality and nihilism at the core of our current political moment, and can help us address questions surrounding liberalism and religion and what is often presented as tension between “Islam and the West.” As an inviting and sophisticated Catholic take on current political and social realities—realities that are not confined to France alone—A Brief Apology for a Catholic Moment is a valuable contribution to a larger conversation.

One of the enduring claims in the Christian tradition is that creation is good. Given the diversity of experience and the abundance of suffering in the world, however, such an affirmation is not always straightforward. The Play of Goodness provides a phenomenology of creation’s goodness that clarifies the ongoing relevance of the doctrine today. It argues that what is “good” about creation is not synonymous with a confession of faith and does not require an overly optimistic disposition, but instead appears within diverse and often surprising circumstances. Alongside original contributions to French phenomenology and creation theology, The Play of Goodness counterbalances a tendency in continental philosophy to focus on negative phenomena. By developing the philosophical concept of a prelinguistic experience of goodness, the book identifies a quality of goodness that is integral to the place in which we find ourselves. It also articulates shared points of contact among people in an increasingly polarized world, while demonstrating that distinctly theological concepts do not need to be presented in opposition to secular, agnostic, or atheist perspectives in order to be relevant. Benjamins develops an account of creation’s goodness that has the potential to animate an abiding affection for one’s place, accentuate our reasons to care for it, and confirm that what happens in our lives is of genuine significance.

American democracy is in danger. How do we protect it from authoritarian reactionary Christianity? On January 6, 2021, hundreds of Americans stormed the Capitol to prevent the certification of their political opponent’s election. At the forefront were Christians claiming to act in the name of Jesus Christ and his supposed representative on earth, Donald Trump. How can this have happened? David P. Gushee tackles the question in this timely work of Christian political ethics. Gushee calls us to preserve democratic norms, including constitutional government, the rule of law, and equal rights for all, even as many Christians take a reactionary and antidemocratic stance. Surveying global politics and modern history, he analyzes how Christians have discarded their commitment to democracy and bought into authoritarianism. He urges us to fight back by reviving our hard-won traditions of congregational democracy, dissident Black Christian politics, and covenantal theology. Defending Democracy from Its Christian Enemies makes a robust case for a renewed commitment to democracy on the part of Christians—not by succumbing to secular liberalism, but by drawing on our own best traditions. Any concerned Christian will leave its pages with eyes wide open to the dangers of our current form of political engagement. Readers will gain insight into what democracy is truly meant to be and why Christians once supported it wholeheartedly—and should do so again.

Global Catholicism: Between Disruption and Encounter opens the Studies in Global Catholicism series with an examination of a worldwide religious institution that up to now has been more globally extensive than truly globalized. It explores the world historical and theological meaning of de-Europeanization with church data by world region. Readers get an in-depth look at the institutional and theological capacity and limits of the cosmopolitan reality of today’s Catholic Church. Its integrated perspective, grounded in cultural and political history together with an ecclesiology of post-Vatican II Catholicism, offers a new way to approach today’s emerging post-colonial, inter-cultural Global Catholicism as centuries-old trajectories are disrupted and pressing new realities demand original responses.

Ad (Synodalem) Theologiam (Moralem) Promovendam M. Therese Lysaught ORIGINAL ARTICLES “And You, Africans: Who Do You Say Jesus Is?”: The Legacy of Laurenti Magesa for the Future of African Theology SimonMary Asese Aihiokhai A View from the Dunghill: Learning Forbearance in a Synodal Church Christopher McMahon Blade Runner’s Replicant Humanity: Self-Discovery and Moral Formation in a World of Simulation Jean-Pierre Fortin Afrofuturist Worlds: The Diseased Colonial Imagination and Christian Hope Adam Beyt Moral Exemplarism in the Key of Christ Noah Karger Power Literacy in Abuse Prevention Education: Lessons from the Field in the Catholic Safeguarding Response Cathy Melesky Dante, Mark A. Levand, and Karen Ross BOOK REVIEWS Andrew Blosser, The Ethics of Doing Nothing: Rest, Rituals, and the Modern World Keunwoo Kwon Erin M. Brigham and Mary Johnson, SNDdeN, eds., Women Engaging the Catholic Social Tradition: Solidarity toward the Common Good Sandie Cornish Charles C. Camosy, One Church: How to Rekindle Trust, Negotiate Difference, and Reclaim Catholic Unity Steven P. Millies Drew Christiansen, SJ, and Carole Sargent, eds., Forbidden: Receiving Pope Francis’s Condemnation of Nuclear Weapons Jacques Linder Stewart Clem, Lying and Truthfulness: A Thomistic Perspective James W. Stroud Daniel J. Fleming, James Keenan, SJ, and Hans Zollner, SJ, eds., Doing Theology and Theological Ethics in the Face of the Abuse Crisis Ramon Luzarraga Jennifer A. Herdt, Assuming Responsibility: Ecstatic Eudaimonism and the Call to Live Well Nicholas Ogle Mary Jo Iozzio, Disability Ethics and Preferential Justice: A Catholic Perspective J. Tyler Campbell James F. Keenan, SJ, A History of Catholic Theological Ethics Bernhard Bleyer D. Stephen Long, The Art of Cycling, Living, and Dying: Moral Theology from Everyday Life Jana Marguerite Bennett Eric Patterson and J. Daryl Charles, Just War and Christian Traditions Thomas Ryan

This rich collection of essays by distinguished scholars from across the globe can be read as sketching key steps on the path toward working in solidarity to build a future worthy of the human family through a new social Catholicism. These steps include a contemporary renewal of Christian humanism and of human rights, while learning to live as authentic Christian witnesses in pluralistic societies after the end of Christendom. They will also include working for a just and sustainable economic paradigm, becoming missionary disciples with a continual orientation toward the marginalized, and overcoming the plague of racism by working to build a constitutional democracy for every citizen. This societal renewal will require fostering robust movements of social Catholicism apt for our age, within which Catholics will pursue the Universal Call to Holiness through living their earthly vocations in a spirit of social friendship. They will creatively employ social media to foster apostolates extending beyond borders. In an age of “dark clouds” threatening dystopia, a new social Catholicism will require a reinvigorated pastoral leadership that has come to appreciate the dangers of populism, and the need to instead foster solidarity and incarnate Christian charity through a “better kind of politics.”

Evil and Givenness: The Thanatonic Phenomenon provides a phenomenological study of evil in its conceptual integrity.Describing a phenomenological situation exclusive to evil in its distinct mode of givenness and manners of manifestation, the account of evil in this book centers on the thanatonic as that phenomenality proper to evil. Although situated within a phenomenology of givenness via Jean-Luc Marion, the thanatonic is distinguished from saturated phenomena by giving itself in a parasitic mode. Brian W. Becker identifies four figures as displaying characteristics of this parasitic givenness—trauma, evil eye, foreign-body, and abject—each expressing a dimension of the thanatonic and paralleling the four figures of the saturated phenomenon. Like the four horsemen who serve as heralds for the destruction of the world, these figures beckon the destruction of our lifeworld, diminishing the self who encounters them. Upon losing the will to bear the excess of saturated phenomena, the receding of horizons, and the loss of singularity, this impoverished self misrecognizes itself in a manner that begins to resemble the metaphysical ego and, in doing so, becomes a vector for retransmitting the thanatonic’s suffering unto others.

An argument for the centrality of the Eucharistic church in an increasingly tribal world. As Western culture has secularized, the church has increasingly become marginalized and is seen as providing support and optional resources, rather than indispensable to the Christian life. In this volume, theologian Scott Cowdell argues for a recovery of the church as the proper context for Christian faith, life, and mission. In Why Church? Cowdell considers how we have arrived at this moment, examining how perceptions of the church have changed in response to increasing individualism and institutional failings. Suggesting that the Eucharistic Church embodies Christ’s desire to draw humankind to him, Cowdell shows how the Christian life depends on Christian community. Written with adult formation in mind and from a perspective of generous orthodoxy, Why Church? makes a provocative case for the centrality of the church to Christian life. Discussion questions at the conclusion of each chapter offer provocative conversation starters for any adult education group.

In this wide-ranging conversation with the Italian journalist Luigi Geninazzi, Cardinal Angelo Scola discusses both the salient moments of his own life and the path and situation of the Church and society in Europe over the last half-century. The Cardinal recounts his life, speaking of the extraordinary gift of particular friendships he has had, starting with Luigi Giussani, founder of the ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation (CL), and moving on to discuss Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri De Lubac, and Joseph Ratzinger. A figure who bridges the past three pontificates, Scola discusses his relationships with St. John Paul II, by whom he was nominated a bishop at the relatively young age of forty nine; Benedict XVI, with whom he has had an intense intellectual friendship for decades; and Pope Francis, of whom he speaks with affection and hope. At the center of this rich fresco of anecdotes and reflections stands a crucial question: what is the true path of the Church today? Between those who reduce Christianity to a mere civil religion and those who propose a purist return to the Gospel, the cardinal indicates a "third way" by betting on the freedom of the human person to recognize the supreme value of Christ. This is at the same time a bet on the active commitment of believers to contribute, starting from faith, to the birth of a new Europe, inevitably more diverse but no loss of its identity.