In contemporary discussions of political and social thought theories of personalism remain largely absent. Personalism emerged, after World War I, onto the French cosmopolitan intellectual scene as a theory that puts the concept of the person at the center of politics. Responding, in part, to the chaos of an emergent modernity inaugurated by the First World War, personalism, with the exception of the theories of Pope John Paul II, has faded from secular discussions of politics. Its spirit and intellectual rigor, however, are recaptured with the publication of A Theory of Personalism. This...

Covering the entire trajectory of his religious life, this book identifies and analyzes the foundations of political and social order in the philosophy of Pope Benedict XVI. Thomas R. Rourke explains Benedict's belief in the value of the Christian tradition's contribution to a contemporary politics of reason.

In The Roots of Pope Francis s Social and Political Thought Thomas R. Rourke traces the development of Pope Francis s thinking from his time as a Jesuit provincial through today. Meticulously researched, the book draws on decades of previously untranslated writings from Father Jorge Bergoglio, SJ, who went on to become Archbishop and Cardinal, as well as recent writings as Pope. The book explores the deepest roots of Pope Francis s thinking, beginning with the experience of the Jesuit missions in Argentina (1500s 1700s), showing how both the success and tragedy of the missions profoundly...

This book traces the development of Pope Francis's thinking from his time as a Jesuit provincial through today. Meticulously researched, the book draws on decades of previously untranslated writings from Father Jorge Bergoglio, SJ, who went on to become archbishop and cardinal; the volume also references his recent writings as pope.