A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World

Today many ask, "What will become of the people in our world?" More specifically, author Carl Anderson asks, "What kind of people are we becoming in our world?" With the way the world is headed, many wonder what can be done to turn things around. We have perhaps heard various names used to describe our world as it stands today - the culture of death, the clash of civilizations, the dictatorship of relativism - but the leader of the international men's fraternal organization The Knights of Columbus, Carl Anderson, chooses to focus his new book on the theme building a world of hope and love.

Anderson states that his new book, A Civilization of Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World, is "a call to active hope." Practical hope is the reason I think this book succeeds, because it is about the hope and means of building a civilization of love; and this book truly inspires hope, but more - while offering a clear and engaging theological treatise on the social doctrine of the Church it is also a practical guide to making such a hope a reality. This book is for anyone who is looking to be part of the revolution of love that has already changed both individual hearts and sectors of society through organizations like the Knights of Columbus.

Mr. Anderson, a first-class theologian in his own right, has written a how-to book that appeals to Catholics of all backgrounds. The author does for Catholic social teaching what Lee Iacocca did for American corporate business - he first leads a revival within his own social enterprise at the Knights of Columbus and then calls the rest of us to follow his success, to transform the world with love.

Anderson weaves his chapters with thematic discussions that focus on various ways to build the civilization of love - topics that include the power of Christ, the domestic church, globalization, business ethics - while filling in the gaps with illustrative examples of people and successful projects that demonstrate the practical possibility of making his plan, which is ultimately the plan of the Church and the Holy Spirit, a new world-wide reality. From Fr. Michael McGivney who founded the Knights of Columbus, which is today a 1.7 million volunteer Catholic men's organization that gave $143 million to charity in 2006, and who was recently regarded by Pope Benedict for his heroic virtue, to Lt. Dan O'Callaghan who died at the World Trade Center on 9-11 and was found holding his Knights of Columbus rosary, to Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II) who found his vocation to become a priest while learning the "Gospel of work" in a rock quarry in Nazi-occupied Poland. In this way, Anderson's book offers the best of both Church social teaching and inspiring examples of modern witnesses of love.

Pius IX once said that if there were one million families praying the Rosary every day, the entire world would be saved. After reading this book, I would add that if there were a million people who would read this book and attempt to put its principles into action, the entire world would be changed... into a renewed civilization of love. Outlining how we can build our contemporary culture with an authentic spirit of progress, Anderson's book gives his readers an invaluable resource on how to become living stones in the building of a global civilization of love. And this is the kind of people Christ is calling us to become in building our world of tomorrow.

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Kelly Bowring, STD, is dean of spiritual mission and associate professor of sacred theology at Southern Catholic College in Georgia.

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Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops