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

by Carl Anderson (Author) "Pope John Paul II often spoke of the Christian's responsibility living in what he called the new "Areopagus of culture."1..." (more)
Key Phrases: death block, domestic church, brings demands, John Paul, United States, Knights of Columbus (more...)

4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Review
"...a bracing call to a new American revolution: a revolution of virtue. Give this book to friends who say there’s nothing to be done to heal a wounded culture." -- GEORGE WEIGEL, distinguished senior fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center

"Anderson artfully weaves theory and practice, giving us a rare specimen indeed: a practical guide for idealists." -- JOHN L. ALLEN JR., senior correspondent, National Catholic Reporter

"Anderson has written a book brimming with insights into the transforming power of Christian faith. A Civilization of Love is both a call to personal holiness and a handbook for Catholics who are prepared to take seriously Christ’s command to his disciples to be ‘salt and light’ in the world." -- ROBERT P. GEORGE, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University

"Few elements of Catholic social teaching have been more forcefully stated, or more regularly ignored, than our calling to bring Christian teachings to bear on social, political, and economic issues. Anderson seeks to bring that message home." -- MARY ANN GLENDON, Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard University

By embracing the culture of life and standing with those most marginalized . . . Christians can change the tone and direction of our culture. Anderson demonstrates that we can come together on the centrality of loving and caring for others -- San Francisco Examiner

Review
By embracing the culture of life and standing with those most marginalized . . . Christians can change the tone and direction of our culture. Anderson demonstrates that we can come together on the centrality of loving and caring for others (San Francisco Examiner )

"Anderson artfully weaves theory and practice, giving us a rare specimen indeed: a practical guide for idealists." (JOHN L. ALLEN JR., senior correspondent, National Catholic Reporter )

"A bracing call to a new American revolution: a revolution of virtue. Give this book to friends who say there's nothing to be done to heal a wounded culture." (GEORGE WEIGEL, distinguished senior fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center )

"Anderson has written a book brimming with insights into the transforming power of Christian faith. A Civilization of Love is both a call to personal holiness and a handbook for Catholics who are prepared to take seriously Christ's command to his disciples to be 'salt and light' in the world." (ROBERT P. GEORGE, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University )

"Few elements of Catholic social teaching have been more forcefully stated, or more regularly ignored, than our calling to bring Christian teachings to bear on social, political, and economic issues. Anderson seeks to bring that message home." (MARY ANN GLENDON, Learned Hand Professor of Law, Harvard University )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: HarperOne (March 25, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0061335312
ISBN-13: 978-0061335310
Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #146,072 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
Pope John Paul II often spoke of the Christian's responsibility living in what he called the new "Areopagus of culture."1 Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
death block, domestic church, brings demands

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
John Paul, United States, Knights of Columbus, Supreme Court, Catholic Church, Mother Teresa, Rerum Novarum, Dignity That Brings Demands, Second Vatican Council, North America, Continent of Baptized Christians, Good Samaritan, New Humanity, The Power of Christ, Culture of Suspicion, Father Kolbe, The Domestic Church, Transform Culture, Pope Benedict, Holy Spirit, Western Hemisphere, Latin America, World War, Jesus Christ, American Catholics

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	5% buy Called to Love: Approaching John Paul II's Theology of the Body 5.0 out of 5 stars (2) $16.32
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Customer Reviews

28 Reviews

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4.5 out of 5 stars (28 customer reviews)

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40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gives Concrete Advice on How we can Change the World, March 25, 2008

By	Patrice Fagnant-macarthur "www.spiritualwoman... (Springfield, MA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

Is it possible for our Catholic faith to transform our increasingly secular culture? Carl Anderson answers that question with a resounding "Yes!" in his new book "A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World." Anderson is the leader of the Knights of Columbus, the world's largest Catholic fraternal group. He has worked closely with both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI and has served on several Vatican committees. In "A Civilization of Love," he relies heavily on the teachings of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, especially the theology of the body and Pope Benedict's recent encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is Love).

Anderson begins with St. Paul's visit to Athens between 50 - 58 AD to illustrate how one person could begin to change a culture. The Greeks believed in many gods, but they had a shrine to an "unknown god." While this was primarily to make sure that they were not angering any gods that they might have forgotten, St. Paul used this as a jumping off point to begin to introduce them to the Judeo-Christian God. Anderson argues that "the responsibility of Christians in our own time remains as it was in Paul's - to radically transform culture, not by imposing values from above, but through a subtler yet more powerful process - living a vocation of love in the day-to-day reality of our lives."

Our world has become increasingly secular. A faith in God has been replaced by a faith in progress. The belief in a creator who has endowed us all with certain unalienable rights is falling by the wayside. "Human life is reduced to a meaning and purpose only in reference to this world, which is asking of this world something that it does not have the power to give." In contrast, Jesus' great commandment was to love God and one another. "It is the vocation to love that not only makes each person, but makes each person human."

"A Civilization to Love" focuses on Catholic social values, what it means to love our neighbor. Especially as lay persons, we are called to work in the world. We are called to change society by the way we raise our families and conduct our business affairs. We are called to witness to what it means to be a people rooted in faith. Everything we possess has been given by God. "Every talent is given as a gift. Every moment is a chance and an opportunity for conveying love. . . Fundamentally, one of the only ways in which we can show our love for God physically is through service to him through people."

Anderson focuses on the ways we can serve in our families, our workplaces, and in the global economy. He discusses many of the social ills that face Catholics and the world today such as the breakdown of the family, the reality of abortion, the increase in working hours, the loss of the Sabbath rest, the need for more ethical behavior in the workplace and government, and adjusting to a changing Church. He offers concrete ways Catholics can make a difference.

Catholics do have the power to transform the world. "They will do so by their actions, by their attitudes, and by their influence. But above all, they will do so by their love. This love is a matter not of mere high-minded sentimentality but of genuine compassion tempered with a well-grounded realism. It is a love that offers hope not only for eternity but for a better way of life on this earth." "A Civilization of Love" invites us all to be part of that transformation. It is up to us to answer the call.

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71 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Omnia vincit amor *, March 28, 2008

By	Kerry Walters (Lewisburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

"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.
______________
* "Love conquers all."

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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Defining the "good life" - in a different way, March 29, 2008

By	Richard Lender (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Civilizing the World
"A Civilization of Love" by Carl Anderson,the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus,is an excellent tome about living the moral life and the promotion of social justice... Read more

Published 6 months ago by Amaranth

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Read
An awesome book on the way we should be living and a target pathway for all peoples to be following to reach salvation.

Published 7 months ago by Joey Mike

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding the REAL crisis facing modern society.
This book is written by Carl Anderson, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, one of the largest Catholic fraternal organizations. Read more

Published 7 months ago by John C. Garrett

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Critique of Modern Society from an Authentically Catholic Viewpoint
"A Civilization of Love" is a quick read but it packs a lot of authentic Catholic social teaching. What I really liked about this book is how it focused on a broad set of social... Read more

Published 9 months ago by CrimsonGirl

2.0 out of 5 stars Geared more toward the board-member and UN-ambassador set
I found the book a little dry and, for the most part, not very relevant to my life. If I were on a board of directors, or working for the UN, I might have found this book more... Read more

Published 9 months ago by Jonathan Aquino

2.0 out of 5 stars Lost in the masquerade
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... Read more

Published 9 months ago by Patrick Whelan

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical encouragement
The author has offered a very practical challenge for living in a loving manner in today's world. His approach is intelligent and encouraging.

Published 11 months ago by Michael B. Donovan

5.0 out of 5 stars A kingdom of justice, love and peace
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... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Philip Cannata

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent
The 15 books were delivered ahead of schedule, well packed. The price was excellent. Could not have asked for a better transaction.

Published 13 months ago by Andrew M. Bahl

5.0 out of 5 stars An eye opener
The Supreme Knight writes a great book that is a must read for anyone in the Knights of Columbus. It is also insightful for anyone who is on the outside looking in that would like... Read more

Published 13 months ago by Michael C. Lynch II

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