A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World by Carl Anderson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World
Book Review: Lost in the masquerade
Summary: 2 Stars
Carl Anderson has written a scholarly-sounding book that is well-written and informative with regard to a certain reading of history and of the important papal encyclicals over the years. But it is impossible to read what he has written as an honest paean to love in light of what he leaves out of the book, and in the severe partisanship that characterizes his other political writings and activities over the years.
Like George Weigel, his writing is littered with references to his own frequent conversations with Pope John Paul II and other high Church officials. These stories come across as more self-reverential than illuminating with regard to the issues under discussion.
As a former Reagan Administration official, who welcomed George Bush to speak before the Knights of Columbus during the heat of the 2004 presidential campaign but publicly shunned and disparaged his fellow Catholic John Kerry, Anderson seems challenged when it comes to practicing what he preaches. His recent open letter belittling another Catholic Senator, Joseph Biden, focuses in the same way on the criminalization of abortion, like so many conservative authors who choose to elevate a single Supreme Court decision as the unparalleled moral test of our time.
In contrast, Anderson's book tells the story of a woman whom he and his wife assisted with an adoption in response to an unintended pregnancy. He also rightly boasts about the efforts of the Knights of Columbus to support the needs of women during pregnancies stressed by poverty or social circumstance. He cites Pope John Paul's encyclical Evangelium Vitae in insisting that we are called to promote life not only by condemning the evil, but also by promoting the good. Indeed, the US Bishops' Conference offered the same citation in their Faithful Citizenship document in November 2007, while going on to suggest that constructive measures to deal with abortion are as important as efforts to criminalize it.
But when it comes to politics, Mr Anderson has no patience for lilly-livered abortion reducers like Biden and Obama. He focuses in his open letter on Biden's discomfort with criminalization, while ignoring Biden's expressed determination to work for abortion reduction. What the open letter to Biden made explicit, the book offers implicitly in the subjects it leaves out. There is no discussion of the $3 trillion war in Iraq, the neglect of the global warming problem that the Vatican has spoken of relentlessly for the past year, and no talk about the unfolding global economic crisis that has resulted from the conservative obsession with deregulation.
It is telling that all of the other Amazon reviewers to date have loved this book with 4- or 5-star ratings. One suspects that the large swath of the Knights of Columbus who will be voting for Senators Obama and Biden have chosen to spend their money on less political treatments of the wonderful subject of love.
Book Review: Practical encouragement
Summary: 5 Stars
The author has offered a very practical challenge for living in a loving manner in today's world. His approach is intelligent and encouraging.Book Review: A kingdom of justice, love and peace
Summary: 5 Stars
This book properly positions family, Catholic education, the spirituality of work, and the right to life as values that should be promulgated by everyone including the Catholic Church. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case quite often by the Church, for details, google isaiah59.Book Review: Depth and inspiration
Summary: 5 Stars
This book makes you question your purpose on earth.
Does capitalism ruin your soul?
How does Catholic dogma affect your daily life?
Faith or pragmatism?
Hope, faith, inspiration, spiritual motivation are well studied in this book. Highly recommended. An inspirational book.
Book Review: excellent
Summary: 5 Stars
The 15 books were delivered ahead of schedule, well packed. The price was excellent. Could not have asked for a better transaction.