Contrary to Catholicism’s commitment to mercy, today’s dominant global economic and cultural system, neoliberal capitalism, demands that life be led as a series of sacrifices to the market. Central is treatment of four neoliberal-perpetuated and -exacerbated crises: environmental destruction, slum proliferation, mass incarceration, and mass deportation.

Specifying Catholic social teaching to respond concretely to the most pressing sign of our times.

Eggemeier Matthew T. :

Matthew T. Eggemeier is associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross, where he teaches courses on Catholic social teaching, political theology, and liberation theology. He is the author of A Sacramental-Prophetic Vision: Christian Spirituality in a Suffering World (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2014) and Against Empire: Ekklesial Resistance and the Politics of Radical Democracy, Theopolitical Visions series (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2020).Fritz Peter Joseph :

Peter Joseph Fritz is associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He has taught varied courses in modern Catholic theology, the history of Christianity since the Reformation, Catholic social teaching, theological aesthetics, and theology and art. He is author of Karl Rahner’s Theological Aesthetics (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2014) and Freedom Made Manifest: Rahner’s Fundamental Option and Theological Aesthetics (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2019).Matthew T. Eggemeier (Author)
Matthew T. Eggemeier is associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross, where he teaches courses on Catholic social teaching, political theology, and liberation theology. He is the author of A Sacramental-Prophetic Vision: Christian Spirituality in a Suffering World (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2014) and Against Empire: Ekklesial Resistance and the Politics of Radical Democracy, Theopolitical Visions series (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2020).

Peter Joseph Fritz (Author)
Peter Joseph Fritz is associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He has taught varied courses in modern Catholic theology, the history of Christianity since the Reformation, Catholic social teaching, theological aesthetics, and theology and art. He is author of Karl Rahner’s Theological Aesthetics (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2014) and Freedom Made Manifest: Rahner’s Fundamental Option and Theological Aesthetics (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2019).

This book is one of the best theological engagements with economics available. The critique of neoliberalism is spot-on: It is a type of class warfare that does not shrink the state but empowers it to protect the market from the people. The market is sublime and cannot be controlled by people. Neoliberalism is thus a type of theology for a deified market, and Eggemeier and Fritz respond with a compelling Christian theology of a God who wants mercy, not sacrifice. If you want a vision of a world beyond today’s suffering and inequality, read this book.