{"product_id":"9781589014909","title":"The Church and Secularity: Two Stories of Liberal Society","description":"\u003cp\u003eWestern liberal societies are characterized by two stories: a positive story of freedom of conscience and the recognition of community and human rights, and a negative story of unrestrained freedom that leads to self-centeredness, vacuity, and the destructive compromise of human values. Can the Catholic Church play a more meaningful role in assisting liberal societies in telling their better story? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAustralian ethicist Robert Gascoigne thinks it can. In \u003ci\u003eThe Church and Secularity\u003c\/i\u003e he considers the meaning of secularity as a shared space for all citizens and asks how the Church can contribute to a sensitivity to—and respect for—human dignity and human rights. Drawing on Augustine’s \u003ci\u003eCity of God\u003c\/i\u003e and Vatican II’s \u003ci\u003eGaudium et spes\u003c\/i\u003e, Gascoigne interprets the meaning of freedom in liberal societies through the lens of Augustine’s “two loves,” the love of God and neighbor and the love of self, and reveals how the two are connected to our contemporary experience. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Church and Secularity\u003c\/i\u003e argues that the Church can serve liberal societies in a positive way and that its own social identity, rooted in Eucharistic communities, must be bound up with the struggle for human rights and resistance to the commodification of the human in all its forms.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Georgetown University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47048527937776,"sku":"9781589014909","price":26.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781589014909_p0.jpg?v=1763802514","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781589014909","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}