A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World

A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World | Carl Anderson | A tour de force Catholic Manifesto

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A Civilization of ...

	A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World Carl Anderson HarperOne, 2008 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Defining the "good life" - in a different way

The dust jacket of Carl Anderson's "A Civilization of Love" strikes a seemingly familiar note: "The battle today is between the culture of death (where people are judged by their social or economic value) and the culture of life." The expectation might be yet another polemical broadside to weigh down shelves already overloaded with such wares: The world is going to hell in a hand basket; hang on for the ride.

Yet Anderson seems to be up to something more, and that something more is evident almost immediately in the first pages of "A Civilization of Love." The polarity is only a starting point, rather than an apocalyptic call to arms - or a trumpet to sound retreat to the hills. Anderson is the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, so it is unsurprising to see him choose his title from a phrase by Pope John Paul II. Is it a throwaway? Is it an empty phrase? Is it an opposition - such as many have tried to draw - against the smaller "mustard seed" idea of the Church and Christianity of John Paul's successor, Benedict XVI?

The answer only becomes fully clear when Anderson reveals his working paradigm in his conclusion. Anderson latches on to three possible approaches of the Christian to society identified by twentieth century Protestant theologian H. Richard Niebuhr: 1) "Christ against culture," with Christ's message understood as a call to revolt against, or at least separate from, society; 2) "Christ of culture," an Enlightenment idea of Christianity as fully compatible with society, and Christ reduced merely to a great moral teacher; or 3) "Christ above culture" - the Christian message as engaged with, yet distinct from, the world. It is this last approach that Anderson embraces, and provides his thesis. "The message and event of Jesus Christ," Anderson insists, "cannot be limited simply to an affirmation - or for that matter, a repudiation - of existing cultural norms." Human beings are called to love. And because they are called to love, it is only by (re)building a culture, a civilization, which loves that we can overcome the conflicts and threats we face today. And in this great task, the Catholic, the Christian, is indispensable: This is the great work we are called to.

All of may sound rather rarified. "Civilization of Love," however, is a very accessible work to the educated layman, and eminently practical, and remarkably succinct (only 173 pages). Every chapter ends with a short list of "Suggestions for Contemplation and Action." The survey for this engagement ranges from the very smallest unit of society, the family ("The Domestic Church") to the largest, the increasingly intertwined (and yet conflicted) global society ("Globalization and the Gospel of Work"). Anderson clearly hopes to do more than move books; he wants to move the world. And like Archimedes, he has found a lever, the only lever, capable of doing so: the salvific grace of Christ, the very embodiment of love.

In short, "A Civilization of Love" is a valuable contribution to the public discourse between the Christian and the secular - one at once both intellectual and eminently practical.

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A tour de force Catholic Manifesto

This is a superbly written, historically enriching, and culturally engaging!

Its a sort of contemporary manifesto for Catholics. But there's something here for Protestants and Eastern Orthodox alike.

For a comparatively similar perspective of what Anderson attempts for Catholics, see JP Moreland's KINGDOM TRIANGLE, which is a manifesto to Protestant evangelicals.

Just in time for the Pope's visit

"A Civilization of Love" by Carl Anderson has been published just in time for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to the US. In highly accessible language, Anderson recapitulates the thinking of both Benedict and his predecessor, the late Pope John Paul II on the key issues facing the Catholic Church in the wake of Vatican II. What's more, the book gives rank-and-file Catholics concrete suggestions on how to live out this papal vision, which, in part, can be summarized in the insistence that only in Christ is fulness of what it means to be human revealed. Concretely,this means treating our fellow men and women with respect always, regardless of our political, social or religious differences. The book also lays out the Catholic position regarding immigration. Catholic social teaching is pro-immigration; it insists on welcoming the stranger and reuniting families. In a presidential election year, this is a highly potent position. In sum, Carl Anderson argues that the West, with its tradition of human rights, and standards of justice, cannot be understood without reference to its Judeo-Christian roots.

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Omnia vincit amor *

"We cannot have compassion without acknowledging the suffering of others." This sentence (p. 167) crisply expresses Carl Anderson's central claim in A Civilization of Love that a reinvigoration of the Catholic tradition of personalism can transform the world. When we focus on individuals rather than abstract data, we discern the contours of their suffering--a suffering in which, we also realize, we're too often complicit. But we also discern the fact that they, made in the likeness of God, are eminently lovable. Just as Christ lovingly makes himself a gift to us in the Eucharist, so we're moved by compassionate love to give ourselves to them (p. 55). The goal is more than mere community; the goal is communion.

This vision of compassionate love as the catalyst for both vertical (human-God) and horizontal (human-human) relationships is as old as Christianity. Anderson draws on a diverse wealth of thinkers--for example, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Paul Ricoeur, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Robert Coles, Freud, Lao Tsu, Aquinas, and George Orwell--to argue for the vision's contemporary relevance. His defense is gracefully and judiciously written.

One of the outstanding qualities of Anderson's treatment is that he refrains from lapsing into a circle-the-wagons shrillness, a temptation into which many religious critics of modern secular culture fall. He makes it clear in his first chapter that he finds the "Whig version of history's" focus on material progress naively optimistic, and his subsequent examinations of education (Chapter 3), Christian humanism (Chapter 4), family (Chapter 5), globalization, work, and economics (Chapters 6 and 7), and right to life issues (Chapter 8) underscore his reservations about secularization. But Anderson spends more energy in setting forth his positive alternative model than wringing his hands over the old one.

Although I quite like Anderson's book and his personalist approach, I have two reservations. The first is the book's surprising silence on issues of war and peace. Both John Paul and Benedict have written strong personalist-oriented denunciations of war that redefine traditional just war doctrine. Given the fact that the US just passed the fifth anniversary of our latest war, it's odd that there's no mention of Catholic teaching on the violence of warfare.

My other reservation is Anderson's treatment of work and economics. While acknowledging that capitalism unleavened by love can reduce human relationships to consumerist manipulation, Anderson ultimately concludes that the economic structure that births huge multi-national corporations isn't itself the problem. Rather, the problem is the abuse of the system by unscrupulous individuals, and a love-ethic is needed to reinforce the Catholic notion of "business as a calling" (a phrase Anderson borrows from Michael Novak, p. 120). While I see his point, I also think that a stronger case can be made for overhauling the entire system. The current subprime mortgage debacle, for example, surely hasn't been caused by a few bad apples. It's a reflection of the way in which our current economic system encourages systemic greed. Anderson's treatment strikes me as too individualistic.

Having said this, though, Anderson's book is highly recommended. It's a refreshing and inspiring defense of the social consequences of taking the "absurd" (as Paul Ricoeur puts it) commandments to love God, to love our neighbors, and to love our enemies, seriously.
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* "Love conquers all."

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From the wife of a Knight of Columbus

After reading A Civilization of Love, I had one overwhelming thought: this is a good man.

We are in need of such good men. As the cultural voices in America become increasingly polarized and dispirited, Carl Anderson offers a good man's thoughtful exploration of the major issues facing our humanity: freedom, love, sex, work, ethics and justice. Central to Anderson's suggestions about how to "transform the world" is an understanding that one good man cannot face these aspects of human life with any sustaining goodness of his own. He quotes a 1964 sermon by then-Father Joseph Ratzinger: "[God] loves us not because we are good, but because he is good."

The Civilization of Love is the witness of a man in the world-- CEO, attorney, former White House staffer--who has taken a stand and made a commitment to receive the transforming goodness offered to men and women in the life of the Catholic Church, through the living presence of Jesus Christ.

As the wife of a Knight of Columbus, I am happy that Mr. Anderson is leading other good men by continuing to point the way toward a civilization of love.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5

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