In the second edition of Essential Catholic Social Thought, Bernard V. Brady makes a prolific contribution to the field as he offers an updated version of his introduction to the social teaching of the Catholic Church. The book offers a concise overview of official Catholic social teaching, but also outlines how those documents respond to concrete human experiences.
The book is divided into eleven chapters. Chapters 1 and 2 serve as a basic introduction to Catholic social teaching and the study of this tradition. Here, he explains the most common principles of Catholic social teaching and offers ways to reflect on those principles in order to make them applicable for our lives. Chapter 2 focuses on four major themes: personalism, the common good, conscience, and vocation. Brady especially focuses on the importance of practice. Catholic social teaching is not simply a collection of documents but requires awareness of who we are if we view ourselves as incarnated beings.
Chapters 3 through 8 begin to document the history of Catholic social teaching and its tradition. Each chapter is constructed around major documents and touches upon particular themes of the social teaching of the church. The focal points of chapters 3 and 4 are the encyclical's Rerum Novarum and Pacem in terris. While discussing those, he includes voices such as John Ryan or John Courtney Murray to highlight how these encyclicals contributed to the social Catholicism of the late nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. Chapter 5 presents the social teaching of the Second Vatican Council, which includes selections of Gaudium et spes, Nostra aetate, Lumen gentium, Dignitatis humanae, as well as the 1967 encyclical Populorum progressio. Chapter 6 includes Paul VI's Octogesima adveniens and the World Synod of Bishops’ Justice in the World as well as a summary of the writings of the Catholic social tradition from Latin America. Chapters 7 and 8 focus on the writings of St. John Paul II. First, Brady discusses Laborem exercens and Sollicitudo rei socialis and the importance of the principle of solidarity for Catholic social teaching. Chapter 8 highlights Centesimus annus followed by a discussion on racism considering Catholic thought.
The main contribution of Brady's book, however, is to be found in chapters 9 to 11. Although chapter 9 reviews the thinking on war and peace, the second edition now includes Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium with a primary focus on peace and social dialogue. Chapter 10 begins with a short introduction to environmental theology, followed by Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si’. In the final chapter, Brady offers brief excerpts of Dives in misericordia, Deus Caritas est, Caritas in veritate, and, again, Evangelii Gaudium. He highlights the different character of these writings for social thought as they pertain to Catholics and Christians, and not the general public.
The strengths of this book lie in its revised content and structure. The addition of Pope Francis’ writings is a major contribution to the general usefulness of the book. In a clear manner, Brady introduces the main themes of Laudato si’ and its importance to the world as the issues of global warming and climate change move closer to the hearts of Christians. What makes this book also rewarding is the way in which it is written and structured. Brady engages the reader by referring to previous chapters as well as asking intermittent and thought-provoking questions throughout the chapters, which invites immediate reflection. In addition, his abridged and edited versions of the social documents offer a path into the oftentimes complex language of the documents of the church. The questions added at the end of every chapter also provide room for reflection and conversation.
The book is pitched primarily for undergraduate classrooms but can also be used in church settings. Its clear and unique use of both primary sources and historical and theological analysis of such makes Brady's book an easily accessible work for everyone who is interested in the social teaching of the Catholic Church as well as a reference book for those who would like to continue to explore its rich social tradition.
