The Modern Papacy

Since the dawn of the Enlightenment, modernity and the Papacy have experienced a difficult though never severed relationship. Modern Papacy goes beyond the caricatures to demonstrate how the popes - specifically John Paul II and Benedict XVI - have articulated a sophisticated critique of the post-Enlightenment world, one that acknowledges the real progress made in modernity while simultaneously highlighting its political and philosophical shortcomings. Far from falling on deaf ears, the nature of their engagement with the modern world has sparked criticism and praise from Catholics and non-Catholics alike - sometimes in surprising ways. Whether the subject is faith and reason, religion and the modern sciences, the roots and future of Europe, or the origin and ends of human freedom, John Paul II and Benedict XVI pose questions that simply cannot be ignored, regardless of whether one likes their answers.

Dr Gregg is Director of Research at the Acton Institute. He is the author of several books, including Morality, Law, and Public Policy (2000), Economic Thinking for the Theologically Minded (2001), On Ordered Liberty (2003), The Commercial Society (2007), as well as monographs such as Ethics and Economics: The Quarrel and the Dialogue (1999), A Theory of Corruption (2004), and Banking, Justice, and the Common Good (2005).

Series IntroductionSeries Editor's Preface Author's PrefaceAcknowledgementsChapter 1. Encountering ModernityIn Enlightenment'sWakeFrom 'Intransigence'to Critical EngagementFrom Engagement toCrisisAPhilosopher from KrakówATheologian of Land BayernA New Papacy, A Distinct AgendaChapter 2. Against the Dissolutionof ManRestoring Wisdom to Reason, andFaith in ReasonA Crisis of Truth and FreedomReturning Europe to EuropeSeeking ResponsesChapter 3. Inside the Modern AreopagusRestorationists, Accomodationists,and LiberationistsModernity Critics, New NaturalLawyers, and Catholic WhigsSecular Rejection, SecularEngagementA New TerrainChapter 4. Paradoxes of EnlightenmentEnlightenment, Progress, andIdeologies of EvilBenedict at RegensburgA Wider AgendaTwenty-First Century ChallengesBibliographyIndex