Much like the rest of the country, American Catholics are politically divided, perhaps more so now than at any point in their history. In this learned but accessible work for scholars, students, and religious and lay readers, ethicist Julie Hanlon Rubio suggests that there is a way beyond red versus blue for orthodox and progressive Catholics. In a call for believers on both sides of the liberal-conservative divide to put aside labels and rhetoric, Rubio, a leading scholar in marriage and family for more than twenty years, demonstrates that common ground does exist in the local sphere between the personal and the political. In Hope for Common Ground, Rubio draws on Catholic Social Thought to explore ways to bring Catholics together. Despite their differences, Catholics across the political spectrum can share responsibility for social sin and work within communities to contribute to social progress. Rubio expands this common space into in-depth discussions on family fragility, poverty, abortion, and end-of-life care. These four issues, though divisive, are part of a seamless worldview that holds all human life as sacred. Rubio argues that if those on different sides focus on what can be done to solve social problems in "the space between" or local communities, opposing sides will see they are not so far apart as they think. The common ground thus created can then lead to far-reaching progress on even the most divisive issues -- and help quiet the discord tearing apart the Church.
AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Reasons for Hope in a Divided Church PART I: FOUNDATIONS FOR COMMON GROUND1. Faithful Citizenship: Is There Hope for Politics?Moving from Faith to PoliticsThe Contemporary Context: Three Reasons for SkepticismPublic Faith in "the Space Between": Realism and Humility"Be the Church"?Notes2. Cooperation with Evil: Personal Responsibilityfor Social Problems Cooperation in the Manuals of Moral TheologyCooperation and the Contemporary Political SceneA Deepening Awareness of Social SinWhite Privilege The Case of Sweatshop ClothingConclusion Notes 3. Why Bother to Act Locally? The Potentialof the "Space Between" A Social Ethic for Ordinary ChristiansFaithful and EffectivePolitics: Necessary but InsufficientPersonal Transformation through Local ActionPossibilities of Social Change from BelowNotes PART II: CASES4. Family: What Does It Mean to Be Promarriage?A Theological Vision of MarriageMarriage and Relationship EducationJobs and Just WagesHelping Married Couples Avoid Divorce and Providing Support after DivorceCommon Ground and ProgressNotes 5. Poverty Reduction: A Social Virtue Ethic New Problems, New Possibilities Principles of Poverty ReductionStrategies for Poverty ReductionAdapting Contemporary Catholic Responses to PovertyFrom Above, From Below, and in BetweenNotes 6. Abortion: Toward Cooperation with the GoodLaw and Public Opinion: Where are we? What is Possible?Human Life, Women's Agency, and the Cooperation with EvilListening to Young, Unmarried Pregnant WomenThe Limits of Traditional StrategiesBuilding a Culture That Welcomes New LifeWhat Are We Hoping For?Notes 7. End-of-Life Care: Enabling Better Practices for Dying Well Human Dignity: Finitude, Vulnerability, and CommunityAutonomy and ControlUnderstanding the Social ContextBuilding Up an Alternative Context"Changing the World"Notes Conclusion: Francis and Ferguson Index
