Christian Socialism
Christian Socialism

Author: Cort, John C.

Publisher: Orbis Books

Published: 2020-05-20

Total Pages: 643

ISBN-13: 1608338207

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"This full-scale study of Christian socialism, from the beginnings of the Jewish-Christian tradition through the present day, argues that socialism, per se, is basically Christian"--

Was Jesus a Socialist?
Was Jesus a Socialist?

Author: Lawrence W. Reed

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2023-08-22

Total Pages: 124

ISBN-13: 1684516617

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"If anyone was ever a socialist, it was Jesus."—Kelley Rose, Democratic Socialists of America Economist and historian Lawrence W. Reed has been hearing people say "Jesus was a socialist" for fifty years. And it has always bothered him. Now he is doing something about it. His new book demolishes the claim that Jesus was a socialist. Jesus called on earthly governments to redistribute wealth? Or centrally plan the economy? Or even impose a welfare state? Hardly. Point by point, Reed answers the claims of socialists and progressives who try to enlist Jesus in their causes. As he reveals, nothing in the New Testament supports their contentions. Was Jesus a Socialist? could not be more timely. Socialism has made a shocking comeback in America. Poll after poll shows that young Americans have a positive image of socialism. In fact, more than half say they would rather live in a socialist country than in a capitalist one. And as socialism has come back into vogue, more and more of its advocates have tried to convince us that Jesus was a socialist. This rhetoric has had an impact. According to a 2016 poll by the Barna Group, Americans think socialism aligns better with Jesus's teachings than capitalism does. When respondents were asked which of that year's presidential candidates aligned closest to Jesus's teachings, a self-proclaimed "democratic socialist" came out on top. Sure enough, the same candidate earned more primary votes from under-thirty voters than did the eventual Democratic and Republican nominees combined. And in a 2019 survey, more than 70 percent of millennials said they were likely to vote for a socialist. Was Jesus a Socialist? expands on the immensely popular video of the same name that Reed recorded for Prager University in July 2019. That video has attracted more than four million views online. Ultimately, Reed shows the foolishness of trying to enlist Jesus in any political cause today. He writes: "While I don't believe it is valid to claim that Jesus was a socialist, I also don't think it is valid to argue that he was a capitalist. Neither was he a Republican or a Democrat. These are modern-day terms, and to apply any of them to Jesus is to limit him to but a fraction of who he was and what he taught."

Dreadful Conversions
Dreadful Conversions

Author: John C. Cort

Publisher: Fordham Univ Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 9780823222568

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

For more than 50 years, John Cort has been at the center of most of the social movements of our time. Writer, reporter, teacher, activist, Cort has spent his life fighting good fights, whether on a Boston newspaper, with the Peace Corps in the Philippines, as a labor leader, or in dozens of campaigns for justice, peace and human rights. Here is John Cort's story--the measure of an exemplary life and a vivid, personal chronicle of American radicalism across virtually every major struggle. At its heart, this is also the story of what it means to take seriously the distinctively radical Catholic vision that informs American political and religious life in this century. It started in 1935, when Cort converted to Catholicism as a Harvard undergraduate. A year later, he was in New York City on the staff of the Catholic Worker, working with such legendary figures as Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. Plunged into the class wars of the Depression, Cort began a 20-year commitment to organizing workers, notably through the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists. Later, Cort served many social action causes while continuing to teach, report, and write. Whether running a model Cities program, a newspaper guild, or a homeless shelter, or as a delegate to a world apostolic congress, Cort brought to life in his radicalism and his socialism the teachings of Catholic activism embodied most vividly by Dorothy Day and John XIII. Desperate Conversions is a unique primer in Catholic social theory, told in the chapters of John Cort's own life. Quirky, personal, distinctive, his memoir captures one of the great stories of our American century--and tells it in a voice no one can forget.