Michael Halpin McCarthy is professor emeritus of philosophy at Vassar College.

• Introduction: Faithful and Free: Four Examples of Critical BelongingI. The Roman Trinity: Religion, Tradition, and Authority1. Toward a catholic Christianity2. Athens and Jerusalem: Two Sources of Western Ethics3. The Loss of Effective Authority: A Crisis of Trust and CredibilityII. The Old and the New: The Imperatives of Continuity and Innovation4. Critical Christian Humanism5. Seeking and Dwelling: Four Spiritual Journeys6. The Common Good: An Exercise in Critical RetrievalIII. Reading the Signs of the Times7. Intellectual Eros and the Quest for Understanding8. Sexuality, Love, and Marriage9. Practical Wisdom, Social Justice, and the Global Society IV. Critical Aggiornamento: Renewing the Promise of Vatican II10. Reforming the Church, Redeeming the World11. To See Things Whole: Three Perspectives on a Catholic Modernity12. Reflections on a Compassionate PapacyConclusion: A Closing Word

This is a daring analysis of the attempt of the Second Vatican Council to bring forth a true way of being Christian in the modern world. McCarthy (emer., philosophy, Vassar College) has studied modernity and the Catholic Church’s responses to it. The book analyzes the Catholic Church’s own self-understanding and then applies this to the situation of the world today, speculating on what ways a Christian can adapt to the “signs of the times” while still being faithful to the true identity of the Catholic Church, what the subtitle refers to as “critical belonging.” McCarthy has studied this subject deeply for his entire career, and this seems his final analysis of the situation. That being so, it will likely prove most useful to scholars, researchers, and philosophers interested in the situation of the postmodern West. Those interested in a comprehensive primer on the subject of living authentically in the postmodern West might begin with Charles Taylor’s The Ethics of Authenticity (1992). A more explicitly Christian-centered interpretation that asks similar questions is Julián Carrón Peréz’s Disarming Beauty (2017).Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, professionals.

Michael Halpin McCarthy is professor emeritus of philosophy at Vassar College.

• Introduction: Faithful and Free: Four Examples of Critical BelongingI. The Roman Trinity: Religion, Tradition, and Authority1. Toward a catholic Christianity2. Athens and Jerusalem: Two Sources of Western Ethics3. The Loss of Effective Authority: A Crisis of Trust and CredibilityII. The Old and the New: The Imperatives of Continuity and Innovation4. Critical Christian Humanism5. Seeking and Dwelling: Four Spiritual Journeys6. The Common Good: An Exercise in Critical RetrievalIII. Reading the Signs of the Times7. Intellectual Eros and the Quest for Understanding8. Sexuality, Love, and Marriage9. Practical Wisdom, Social Justice, and the Global Society IV. Critical Aggiornamento: Renewing the Promise of Vatican II10. Reforming the Church, Redeeming the World11. To See Things Whole: Three Perspectives on a Catholic Modernity12. Reflections on a Compassionate PapacyConclusion: A Closing Word

This is a daring analysis of the attempt of the Second Vatican Council to bring forth a true way of being Christian in the modern world. McCarthy (emer., philosophy, Vassar College) has studied modernity and the Catholic Church’s responses to it. The book analyzes the Catholic Church’s own self-understanding and then applies this to the situation of the world today, speculating on what ways a Christian can adapt to the “signs of the times” while still being faithful to the true identity of the Catholic Church, what the subtitle refers to as “critical belonging.” McCarthy has studied this subject deeply for his entire career, and this seems his final analysis of the situation. That being so, it will likely prove most useful to scholars, researchers, and philosophers interested in the situation of the postmodern West. Those interested in a comprehensive primer on the subject of living authentically in the postmodern West might begin with Charles Taylor’s The Ethics of Authenticity (1992). A more explicitly Christian-centered interpretation that asks similar questions is Julián Carrón Peréz’s Disarming Beauty (2017).Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, professionals.

Michael Halpin McCarthy is professor emeritus of philosophy at Vassar College.

• Introduction: Faithful and Free: Four Examples of Critical BelongingI. The Roman Trinity: Religion, Tradition, and Authority1. Toward a catholic Christianity2. Athens and Jerusalem: Two Sources of Western Ethics3. The Loss of Effective Authority: A Crisis of Trust and CredibilityII. The Old and the New: The Imperatives of Continuity and Innovation4. Critical Christian Humanism5. Seeking and Dwelling: Four Spiritual Journeys6. The Common Good: An Exercise in Critical RetrievalIII. Reading the Signs of the Times7. Intellectual Eros and the Quest for Understanding8. Sexuality, Love, and Marriage9. Practical Wisdom, Social Justice, and the Global Society IV. Critical Aggiornamento: Renewing the Promise of Vatican II10. Reforming the Church, Redeeming the World11. To See Things Whole: Three Perspectives on a Catholic Modernity12. Reflections on a Compassionate PapacyConclusion: A Closing Word

This is a daring analysis of the attempt of the Second Vatican Council to bring forth a true way of being Christian in the modern world. McCarthy (emer., philosophy, Vassar College) has studied modernity and the Catholic Church’s responses to it. The book analyzes the Catholic Church’s own self-understanding and then applies this to the situation of the world today, speculating on what ways a Christian can adapt to the “signs of the times” while still being faithful to the true identity of the Catholic Church, what the subtitle refers to as “critical belonging.” McCarthy has studied this subject deeply for his entire career, and this seems his final analysis of the situation. That being so, it will likely prove most useful to scholars, researchers, and philosophers interested in the situation of the postmodern West. Those interested in a comprehensive primer on the subject of living authentically in the postmodern West might begin with Charles Taylor’s The Ethics of Authenticity (1992). A more explicitly Christian-centered interpretation that asks similar questions is Julián Carrón Peréz’s Disarming Beauty (2017).Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, professionals.