Look Not Upon Our Sins by Georgette Symonds

Borghesi’s rigorous examination of the Pope’s intellectual formation will offer some clarity to those who hold reservations against some of Francis’ more confusing statements (though it may not resolve them completely). Two books that can help cross ecclesial divides are Massimo Borghesi’s The Mind of Pope Francis and Fr. Cyprian Davis OSB’s The History of Black Catholics in the US brings to light the all too forgotten history of black Americans in the Church. Cone’s The Cross and the Lynching Tree offers a powerful and challenging theological-historical analysis of the apathy of white Christians toward lynching. Though the memoirs of Cornel West and Thomas Chatterton Williams portray two very distinct narratives of growing up black in America, both are helped by their passions for philosophy to confront racism. Needless to say, America’s ugly racial wounds have resurfaced in a painfully dramatic way this year.

Though their methodologies differ, both books shed light on the roles that scientism and technocracy have played in obscuring the dignity of the human person in political and cultural discourse. Jason Blakely’s We Built Reality and Augusto Del Noce’s The Age of Secularization can help us read today’s social issues from a more theoretical lens. Similarly, Sue Ellen Browder’s critique of the abortion rights movement from a feminist lens in Sex and the Catholic Feminist will offer some challenging food for thought for pro-choice feminists. His expansive approach to life issues (ranging from abortion and euthanasia to animal rights and just war) is likely to win over those who don’t typically identify with the “pro-life” camp. Charles Camosy lays out a sincere and nuanced program for those committed to furthering the Consistent Life Ethic. Resisting Throwaway Culture by my former Fordham professor Dr.

Chris Arnade’s Dignity and Charles Taylor’s Reconstructing Democracy offer a vision of how we can correct social ills from the bottom up rather than from the top-down, thereby giving value to the roles of “place, family, and faith” in furthering the Common Good. Wright’s Dorothy Day: An Introduction to Her Life and Thought (Ignatius Press) and DL Mayfield’s The Myth of the American Dream offer examples of how Christians can fight social injustice without sacrificing doctrinal orthodoxy and the primacy of personal sanctity. The severe polemical divisions brought on by this year’s pandemic and political unrest has awakened in me a thirst for books that can help cross-ideological chasms and bring us back in touch with our humanity.īooks like Terrence C.

Look Not Upon Our Sins by Georgette Symonds