Healing the Culture: A Commonsense Philosophy of Happiness, Freedom, and the Life Issues [Paperback]

Robert Spitzer S.J. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2000

Father Spitzer, President of Gonzaga University, has been using the principles in this book over the last eight years to educate people of all backgrounds in the philosophy of the pro-life movement. The tremendous positive response he has received inspired him to start the Life Principles Institute. This book is one of the key resources used for this program.

This work effectively draws out the connections between personal attitudes toward happiness and the meaning of life, and the larger cultural issues such as freedom and human rights. Relying on the wisdom of the ages and respecting the human persons' unique capacity for rational analysis, this work offers definitions of the key cultural terms affecting life issues, including Happiness, Success, Love, Suffering, Quality of Life, Ethics, Freedom, Personhood, Human Rights and the Common Good.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An excellent resource for examining the life issues in their broadest and most profound context. It is also an encouraging and accessible tool for responding to the Holy Father's challenge to build a 'culture of life'."
—Cardinal Francis George, Archbishop of Chicago --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 347 pages
• Publisher: Ignatius Press (October 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898707862
• ISBN-13: 978-0898707861
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #380,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

83 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Welcome Diagnosis and Proposal, October 31, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Healing the Culture: A Commonsense Philosophy of Happiness, Freedom, and the Life Issues (Paperback)

With the keen eye of a philosopher Father Robert Spitzer slices to the heart of our culture and proposes a renewal based on a foundational understanding of what it means to be a person. He identifies the sources of human happiness as having four levels ~ all good, so long as they are not distorted in their importance. Spitzer claims that the happiness we find in our relationships, for example, is superior to the happiness we find in a tasty dinner or in achieving a promotion. Building on this notion of personhood, Spitzer examines the concepts of rights, the Common Good, and other cultural categories and then turns to examining specific social problems like abortion and euthanasia. He shows how in a culture that over-values individual choices, we have come to undervalue the human person. And best of all he shows us how to build a society that is true to the best of who we are. Most highly recommended.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ethics for all times in every day language, June 17, 2002

By 

Beverly B. Nuckols "hocndoc" (New Braunfels, Tx United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Healing the Culture: A Commonsense Philosophy of Happiness, Freedom, and the Life Issues (Paperback)

I have been quoting the book since I opened it.
There is help for the religious, non-religious, or even anti-religious reader who would like to find a higher level of happiness in his life. There is no preaching. You will not feel as though the author is trying to convert or convince you of anything. He is explaining and teaching.
Who doesn't want to understand their world and be happier at the same time?
It is easy to understand, complete as far as I can tell, and compelling. There are no greek letters, polysyllabic-for-effect words, and yet you don't feel as though you are reading "Ethics for dummies." But, you will be educated and uplifted.
The introduction tells us how we ended up discussing abortion and euthanasia as a legal option in the first place. He does not use a "slippery slope" analogy, but describes the process that has made some women feel that society expects them to have an abortion.
The first chapter is a crash course in logic and basic ethics, with explanations that have stuck in my mind as both familiar and novel ways of saying what I have been reading in other much more difficult to read books.
And it just gets better from there.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most important book I've ever read, July 25, 2002

By 

Dennis E. Coburn "EE Consultant" (Bedford, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Healing the Culture: A Commonsense Philosophy of Happiness, Freedom, and the Life Issues (Paperback)

Extremely well written and easy to read. Very enjoyable but with sufficient depth to challange any serious thinker. A well thought out elaboration of the philosophy that lies behind legitimate constitutional government and a pro-life (in the broadest sense of the word) culture.

This book is exactly what I would like have written if I had the knowledge, understanding and talent to pull it off.

It presents the concepts and explanations that prove that the pro-choice and euthanasia movements are essentially anti-liberty, anti-freedom and the ultimate source of much that is wrong with our culture today.