A Nation for All: How the Catholic Vision of the Common Good Can Save America from the Politics of Division

At the dawn of the 21st century, Americans are more divided than ever across political, economic, social, racial and religious lines. In this unoriginal call to action, Korzen and Kelley bemoan this division, urging American society to return to its unified roots by focusing on the common good. According to the authors, a politics of division encourages everybody to look out for themselves and not for each other. They trace the roots of poverty, war, climate crisis, abortion and inadequate health care to such division and point to a rich Catholic social tradition as a way of recovering an emphasis on the common good. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church teaches that human dignity and human rights—such as the rights to food, housing, work and education, among others—provide the foundation for the common good. The authors provide a short survey of Catholic social teaching (though they mysteriously leave out John Courtney Murray, the most famous Catholic proponent of the common good) and explain key themes of that social teaching, including solidarity and the preferential option for the poor. (May)