Politics for a Pilgrim Church: A Thomistic Theory of Civic Virtue - Paperback

by Thomas J. Bushlack (Author)

Presents an innovative, constructive alternative to Christian involvement in the "culture wars"

Church leaders and scholars have long wrestled with what should provide a guiding vision for Christian engagement in culture and politics. In this book Thomas Bushlack argues that a retrieval of Thomas Aquinas's understanding of civic virtue provides important resources for guiding this engagement today.

Bushlack suggests that Aquinas's vision of the pilgrim church provides a fitting model for seeking the earthly common good of the political community, and he notes the features of a Thomistic account of justice and civic virtue that remain particularly salient for the twenty-first century. The book concludes with suggestions for cultivating a Christian rhetoric of the common good as an alternative to the predominant forms of discourse fostered within the culture wars that have been so divisive.

Author Biography

Thomas J. Bushlack is assistant professor of Christian ethics at the University of St. Thomas, Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he is also part of the Project for Mindfulness and Contemplation.