A Good Historical Overview, Marred at Times by Personal Views:
I was lent a copy of Dr. Mich's Book by my undergraduate theology advisor in order to prepare a bit for a conference I was attending for the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the writing of Laborem Exercens. Unbeknownst to both me and my former advisor, Dr. Mich was attending the conference and was to give a brief lecture. Had I not met Dr. Mich and discussed several subjects about his book with him, I would be much more apt to give the text a 3 out of 5 for reasons discussed above. However, in the course... more info
Five Stars - despite One Serious Fault:
Oh Lord, what a mixture here of profound, profound value, heart and beauty ... and a frequent self-assured, polemical tone that, it seems to me, disserves the author's sincere, heartfelt intent. Let me begin with the gold. The author cares, the author *obviously* cares about our world. Thus his book can serve to open one's heart to the terrible, terrible suffering of the victims of third world poverty, war, racism, unbridled capitalism and other contemporary evils, to the tragedy and horror that people... more info
Very Complete:
This book is great. It explores the ideas of Catholic Social Teaching from not only the official papal encyclicals, but also from unofficial drafts of encyclicals, letters of the bishops, grass roots movements by lay Catholics, and the processes which all of these have gone through to be formed. Mich has done a thorough job and allows one to truly appreciate the rich tradition of Catholic Social Teaching that most people know so little about. It also opens up the doors to many currently hot topics and... more info
BEST KEPT SECRET:
Though this is not a book I would normally read, I did enjoy it. It was assigned for a college course that I was taking. In the Introduction it states that the "social teachings" of the catholic church are its best kept secret and I agree. I never knew it had such a deep tradition in social teachings. It goes back to 1848 and finishes off in 1992. I never knew the history of the catholic church like it is shown here. It also illustrates the many roles activists played, many of them were women. Not only does... more info
