Secular political ideologies try to present a comprehensive vision of reality that excludes the transcendent. Yet, at their core, they are all forms of idolatry, directing their followers to arrange their lives around fleeting and finite commodities, leading them to worship the false gods of pleasure, self, tribe, or money. Over time, these various gods generate the same result: individual and social instability.Matthew R. Petrusek's Evangelization and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to Political Culture provides an antidote to ideological thinking: the foundations of Catholic social thought. Examining the philosophical foundations of today's four dominant secular ideologies—utilitarianism, classical liberalism/libertarianism, progressivism/wokeism, and non-theistic conservatism—Petrusek demonstrates how, while respecting the genuine concerns of these worldviews, Catholic teaching responds to their errors and deficiencies by providing a more rational and moral alternative.Many believe that staying out of the sociopolitical arena is the best way forward for the Church. But there is hope: our hyper-politicized society can be used to evangelise rather than be an impediment. Evangelization and Ideology provides readers with an insight of the roots of our fractured political culture as well as a road map for reorienting it towards the transcendent God and the true human good.
Hardcover
480 Pages