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Displaying: 1-20 of 37 documents


part i: symposium: on krason’s transformation
1. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Joseph A. Varacalli The Birth, Near Death, and Possible Resurrection of the American Experiment
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This article first summarizes the thesis of Stephen M. Krason on the historical transformation of the American Democratic Republic. It then builds on the Krason thesis by providing an introductory analysis of two dysfunctional sectors of American life that must be addressed and corrected if the civilization is to be revitalized. These problematic sectors involve cultural and institutional-organizational life. Solutions can be provided through a Catholic sociology whose work in analysis and social policy formulation is led by the principles of the natural law and Catholic social thought.
2. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Ryan J. Barilleaux Political Institutions and Power in the Twenty-First Century Republic
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Stephen Krason’s study of the American political experiment is a valuable exercise in traditional political science. His analysis leads a reasonable observer to ask whether the republic established by the Founders is still operative, or whether it has evolved into something quite different from the democratic republic of 1787. The creation of an administrative state in modern America, which has taken form especially in the past half-century, has moved the political system toward new modes of governing and domination by a new class of political elites. The article concludes by asking whether the American democratic republic is a lost cause.
3. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Kevin Schmiesing The Transformation of the American Democratic Republic: A Historical Critique
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Stephen Krason’s The Transformation of the American Democratic Republic, argues that the American nation has drifted far from the principles of its founding. This historical critique questions some of the details of Krason’s account, observing that the claims of some of the secondary sources on which he relies are open to dispute. Notwithstanding these details, Krason’s overarching thesis is historically sound and its important message deserves wide attention.
4. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Stephen M. Krason Response
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This is a response by the author to the comments made about his book, The Transformation of the American Democratic Republic, in this symposium.
part ii. articles
5. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Bishop William Francis Murphy The Social Initiatives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
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From its beginning, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has been concerned with promoting Catholic social teaching (CST) in the American context. A review of the recent history and trajectory of the conference’s statements suggests that the bishops are likely moving away from an approach that stresses the bishops’ role as collectors and promoters of expert opinion on specific economic policy, and toward a more restrained role as teachers of the principles of CST—a move that is based theologically in the teachings of Vatican II on the respective roles of clergy and laity. [The following is a revised version of an address delivered to the Society of Catholic Social Scientists Annual Conference, New York, October 27, 2012. Updates have been added within the endnotes.]
6. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Walter Rhomberg, Michaela Rhomberg, Hubert Weissenbach Natural Family Planning as a Family Binding Tool: A Survey Report
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In 2008, on behalf of the marriage- and family centers of the Austrian dioceses of Salzburg and Feldkirch, a survey concerning the performance of natural regulation of conception and its potential influence on family life and spousal relations was conducted by the Institute for Natural Regulation of Conception (INER), Vöcklabruck, Austria among its own members, a group of declared users and/or teachers of the method. Questionnaires were mailed to 1131 members in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. The return rate was 43.5%. The results support earlier publications indicating that natural familiy planning (NFP) is associated with positive spousal relationships and family stability. NFP, here specifically the sympto-thermal method of J. Rötzer, improves communication and mutual respect between the spouses and is associated with a low divorce rate (3%). Periodic continence is regarded as beneficial by a majority of respondents. Since the method is free of any undesirable side effects and associated with a favourable Pearl Index, it should become more widely known.
7. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Marie I. George Environmentalism and Population Control: Distinguishing Pro-Life and Anti-Life Motives
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Environmentalists commonly offer three motives for why human populations need to be reduced or stabilized. One group maintains that human numbers threaten natural goods that should be preserved: biodiversity and ecosystems. A more extreme group maintains that we are taking up more than our fair share of the planet, eliminating species that have just as much right to be here. A third group advocates controlling human populations in order to prevent the environment from being degraded to the point that it harms people. I intend to examine in light of Catholic social teaching whether these proposed motives for controlling population are always anti-life.
8. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Clement Anthony Mulloy John A. Ryan and the Issue of Family Limitation
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One of the most prominent Catholic social thinkers of the twentieth century, Msgr. John A. Ryan, devoted significant attention to the issues of birth control and family limitation. Although he is well known for his writings on labor and wages, scholars have paid less attention to Ryan’s work on birth control. He deliberately employed a strategy of concentrating on contraception’s harmful effects on society, and his effort represents an important early twentieth-century attempt to persuade the American public of the Catholic viewpoint on a matter of major political and cultural importance.
9. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Adam Tate South Carolina Catholics and the Know Nothing Challenge: The Charleston Elections of 1855
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South Carolina Catholics defended themselves against the nativist attacks of the Know Nothings during the 1855 Charleston city elections by portraying themselves as loyal southerners and Americans. During the political battle, a number of South Carolina Democrats rose to defend their Catholic neighbors from nativist attacks. By the end of the election cycle, South Carolina Catholics had adopted a critique of centralized state power that gelled with broader Carolinian political concerns, bringing them closer to the South Carolina political and cultural mainstream.
10. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Bruce P. Frohnen The Problem with Empathy: Constitutional Agnosticism, the Rights of Conscience, and the Quest for Community
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The Obama Administration’s contraceptive mandate, requiring all but the most insular religious organizations to pay the costs of a practice their religious tenets explicitly reject, raises fundamental issues regarding the rights of conscience in the contemporary United States. This article examines recent attempts to defend religious liberty on the grounds that the state should take care not to violate the rights of individual conscience. The problem with such an approach, this article argues, is that, in the name of a justice system more sensitive to individual beliefs, it further erodes the rights of religious associations to act on the common beliefs of their members, undermining believers’ ability to actually act according on their faith.
11. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Steven Brust Education Under the Dictatorship of Relativism
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The goal of this article is to assist Catholic faculty members and other educators in developing strategies that will enable them to begin to counteract what Pope Benedict XVI has identified as the dictatorship of relativism. I explore what this social phenomenon is and how Catholic faculty members might respond to it by offering some suggestions on topics to address and by exploring potential obstacles to sound moral reasoning. Concluding with a brief consideration of the necessity of presenting the Christian faith as integral to the response to the dictatorship, I reinforce Benedict XVI’s contention that Christ is the clear alternative goal of life that can be offered to students.
12. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Amir Azarvan Are Highly Theistic Countries Dumber? Critiquing the Intelligence-Religiosity Nexus Theory
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Recent research suggests that higher-IQ countries have significantly more atheists, supposedly because higher intelligence confers a greater ability to apprehend the assumed irrationality of theistic belief. In this quantitative study, an alternative explanation is offered to explain the apparent relationship between intelligence and theism. It is theorized that higher education in free societies brings greater exposure to, and eases the acceptance of, such unconventional views as atheism. This exposure, in and of itself, augments the likelihood that one will reject belief in God. In addition, it is argued on the basis of the Christian ascetic tradition that materialism also produces higher levels of disbelief. OLS regression analysis of 99 countries confirms both theories, while revealing no evidence of an inverse link between intelligence and theism. Findings also show that disbelief is significantly lower in countries that are traditionally Roman Catholic, as well as in those that have not experienced communist rule.
13. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Stephen Nakrosis The Ethics of Speculation in the Works of Oswald von Nell-Breuning
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The Jesuit theologian and economist, Oswald von Nell-Breuning (1890–1991), struggled with the question of how the conscientious Christian could properly use financial tools, including speculative trades. One of Germany’s most-respected economists during his lifetime, Nell-Breuning’s observations of the market span his 100-plus years, from the heady years prior to the Great Depression to the more modern and global financial markets of the late twentieth century. This paper will introduce some of his ideas regarding speculative trades, discuss his conclusions regarding the morality of speculative transactions, and attempt to apply his ideas and observations to the modern financial sphere.
14. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Stephen Nikola Bartulica Lessons Learned from the Transition from Communism to Free-Market Democracy: The Case of Croatia
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This article explores the transition experience of Croatia from 1990 to the present, with emphasis on social attitudes towards the free-market system and how the legacy of communism has influenced people’s expectations of and views towards the economy. The anthropological position of man as homo economicus is of central importance, if one is to properly understand the forces at work in a transition society like Croatia. This position also has far-ranging implications for ethics and morality, as well as for the general culture. Assisted by the insights of Catholic social teaching, in particular Pope Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate, the article concludes with possible lessons from the failure of communism and the challenges of transition.
part iii. book reviews
15. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Christopher White Nicanor Pier Giorgio Austriaco, O.P., Biomedicine and Beatitude: An Introduction to Catholic Bioethics
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16. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Stephen Charles Kokx Colleen Carroll Campbell, My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir
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17. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Gregory R. Beabout Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy , volume 3: Supplement, edited by Michael L. Coulter, Richard S. Myers, and Joseph A. Varacalli
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18. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Stephen M. Krason Bill Donohue, Why Catholicism Matters: How Catholic Virtues Can Reshape Society in the 21st Century
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19. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Adam Tate Maura Jane Farrelly, Papist Patriots: The Making of an American Catholic Identity
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20. Catholic Social Science Review: Volume > 18
Anne Hendershott Sherif Girgis, Ryan Anderson, and Robert George, What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense
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