Announcing Political Theology 15.1 — On Solidarity

The January 2014 (15.1) issue of Political Theology focuses on the theme of solidarity. The issue begins with an editorial by Peter Henriot SJ, of the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection, Zambia, which describes some of the ground-breaking development work that is being accomplished across Southern Africa through centres for Catholic social thought. In these centres, insights from the Christian social tradition are brought to life through education and empowerment and placed at the service of justice and peace work and social transformation. The opening essay, by Gerald Beyer of Villanova University, examines the meaning of solidarity within the corpus of Catholic social teaching, where its importance as a notion has grown, especially since the dawn of the papacy of John Paul II (1978-2005). In the Catholic tradition, solidarity is often described as a principle of social and political life. Meghan Clark, of St John’s University New York, prefers to regard solidarity as a social virtue, which carries corresponding vices. She explores the scope and limits of solidarity in her ‘Anatomy of a Social Virtue: Solidarity and Corresponding Vices’. In ‘Intellectual Solidarity and Transcending Polarized Discourse’ Charles Camosy, of Fordham University, promotes the value of solidarity as a means of overcoming the oppositional and often acrimonious discourse that characterises so much intellectual debate. According to Camosy, the practice of intellectual solidarity can improve the quality of public discourse and better promote the search for truth. Shaji George Kochuthara, of the Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram Institute, Bangalore examines the inexorable process of globalisation in India. Kochuthara argues that the much-vaunted globalisation will fail to deliver any improvement in the lives of the poor unless it is accompanied by justice and solidarity. In ‘The Dance of Open Minds and Hearts: Aesthetic Solidarity as Antidote to an Anemic Solidarity’, Maureen O’Connell, of LaSalle University Philadelphia, points to the importance of the arts for reawakening humanity’s moral imagination and stimulating more creative and affective acts of solidarity. The final article, ‘“And You Welcomed Me”: Solidarity with Migrants’ by William O’Neill SJ, of the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University, proposes a rights-based ethics of solidarity with migrants and investigates what such an approach might mean from the perspective of Christianity.

You can view a free sample issue of the journal (issue 14.3) by clicking on this link.

 

The contents of Political Theology 15.1 (January 2014):

Guest editorial: African Centres for Catholic Social Teaching as a Leaven of Integral Development

Peter Henriot, S.J.

 

The Meaning of Solidarity in Catholic Social Teaching

Gerald J. Beyer

 

Anatomy of a Social Virtue: Solidarity and Corresponding Vices

Meghan Clark

 

Intellectual Solidarity and Transcending Polarized Discourse

Charles C. Camosy

 

Globalization in Solidarity: Reflections on Globalization from India

Shaji George Kochuthara

 

The Dance of Open Minds and Hearts: Aesthetic Solidarity as Antidote to an Anemic Solidarity

Maureen H. O’Connell

 

“And You Welcomed Me”: Solidarity with Migrants

William O’Neill, S.J.