Hope for Common Ground

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