Catholic Social Thought in Australia and overseas (DT2230Y)

Content

This unit will examine Catholic social and political ideas and movements in Europe and elsewhere and evaluate their impact and interpretation in Australia. It will consider key issues in Catholic social movements in Europe, outline the backgrounds to the papal social encyclicals and trace their development internationally to Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis.

Learning outcomes

Unit sequence

A foundational unit in Church History or Moral Theology

Pedagogy

The unit requires students to read closely the major social justice encyclicals in light of the historical context and the social justice debates at the time. Students are also required to discuss their findings and evaluate Church social reform efforts overseas and their impacts in Australia. The unit will outline the development of Catholic social thinking in Australia, including as reflected in the social justice statements of the Australian bishops. The lecturer will also make use of film and digital resources which succinctly portray various aspects of these developments. Written assessment requires significant reading and evaluation.

Indicative Bibliography

• Duncan, Bruce. Crusade or Conspiracy? Catholics and the anti-Communist Struggle in Australia. Sydney: UNSW Press, 2001.
• Faggioli, Massimo. John XXIII: the Medicine of Mercy. Collegeville MN: Liturgical Press, 2104.
• Himes, Kenneth R., ed. Modern Catholic Social Teaching: Commentaries and Interpretations. Washington, DC: Georgetown UP, 2004.
• Hogan, Michael. Australian Catholics: The Social Justice Tradition. Melbourne: Collins Dove, 1993.
• Ivereigh, Austen: The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2014.
• Mathews, Race. Of Labour and Liberty: Distributism in Victoria 1891-1966 Melbourne: Monash Publishing, 2017.
• Pabst, Adrian. The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Pope Benedict XVI’s Social Encyclical and the Future of Political Economy. Cambridge, UK: James Clarke & Co., 2011.
• Rourke, Thomas R. The Roots of Pope Francis’s Social and Political Thought: From Argentina to the Vatican. Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018.
• Tornielli, Andrea & Galeazzi, Giacomo. This Economy Kills: Pope Francis on Capitalism and Social Justice. Collegeville MN: Liturgical Press, 2015.
• Vallely, Paul. Pope Francis: Untying the Knots. London: Bloomsbury, 2013.

Assessment