In Communities of Kinship: Retrieving Christian Practices of Solidarity with Lepers as a Paradigm for Overcoming Exclusion of Older Persons, Carlo Calleja describes kinship as a moral category, arguing that practicing kinship with others can cultivate virtues that shape the character of the agent. Contemporary Western society tends to focus on kinship as the sharing of blood ties or genetic material. On the other hand, the spiritual kinship that is proposed by religions tends to be exclusive and often nominal. For this reason, Calleja proposes practices and structures of solidaristic kinship, which involves sharing in the suffering of the other person. Finding parallels between the exclusion of lepers and the efforts of Christian communities to reforge kinship bonds with them in ancient and medieval times, he argues that communities of kinship with older persons can help cultivate the virtues needed for the flourishing of oneself and society.
Carlo Calleja is a lecturer in ethics, social justice, and theology at the University of Malta.
Communities of Kinship: Christian Solidarity with Lepers and the Inclusion of Older Persons is a brilliant contribution to the ethics of kinship. Taking the historical treatment of lepers as a case study and applying it to the political exclusion of the elderly today, Carlo Calleja explores kinship as an ethical category, and shows how to re-establish kinship through communities of solidaristic kinship. Besides explaining the familial and communitarian dimensions of kinship he also explicates the political dimensions of kinship. This is a much-needed work for our world, which continues to exclude people based on race, caste, gender, age, language, religion, etc. --Shaji George Kochuthara, president, Association of Moral Theologians of India In this significant, provocative, and convincing work Carlo Calleja restores our understanding of kinship as an important moral and political concept for brokering contemporary relationships. Reflecting on the ways two distinct populations have been treated, the elderly in the contemporary world and those suffering from leprosy during the medieval and early modern era, Calleja invites us to recognize how deeply connected we each are. Beautifully written, wonderfully engaging. --James F. Keenan, S.J., Boston College In Communities of Kinship: Christian Solidarity with Lepers and the Inclusion of Older Persons, Carlo Calleja masterfully guides readers to explore anew inclusive communities who, in the history of Christianity, cared for people who were sick and dying. Remarkably, Calleja makes these ancient communities inspire and teach us today, showing how we could renew our kinship and empower our solidarity with the elderly and with those who face dying. This is a must-read for everyone interested in fostering virtuous life, personally and socially. --Andrea Vicini, S.J., Boston College This book explores how the global surge of cultural individualism and indifference needs to be addressed by nurturing communities of solidaristic kinship, grounded not merely on blood relationships but rather on the interrelatedness and interconnectedness of humankind's shared vulnerabilities. Communities of Kinship highlights how the dialectic relationship between practices and structures of kinship cultivates the civil virtues necessary for fostering a culture of encounter, solidarity, justice, and care. --Emmanuel Agius, University of Malta This monograph is recommended for the solid and fruitful interweaving of theoretical concepts and good practices of bringing people, groups, generations together under the tallow of universal brotherhood, hospitality, and kinship. The author shows all this interweaving as a design of ethical-social value, almost a paradigm of coexistence. It is even more necessary and productive as the needs of many vulnerable individuals and different marginalized groups appeal to an ethos of hospitality that must not only move the decisions of individuals, but become structurally innovative, emancipatory, and reconciling for the whole society. --Antonio Autiero, professor emeritus, University of Muenster
