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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.
List of contents
List of Abbreviations | ix
Introduction | 1
Introducing Neoliberalism, 2 ¿ Catholic Critique of Neoliberalism, 4 ¿
Chapter Outlines, 7 ¿ Send Lazarus, 11
Part I : Catholic Social Thought and the Economy1 Catholic Social Thought against Economism | 15
Modern Catholic Social Thought, 17 ¿ John Paul II on
Economism, 20 ¿ Benedict XVI: Against an Impersonal
Economy, 33 ¿ Francis: No to a Faceless Economy, 46 ¿
Papal Continuity, 56
Part II: Neoliberalism2 Neoliberal Capitalism | 65
Neoliberalism as PoliticalEconomy, 66 ¿
Neoliberalism as Common Sense, 76 ¿
Ethos of Mercilessness, 86
3 Sacrifice, Race, and Indifference | 94
Sacrifice Zones, Earth, and Slums, 96 ¿ Racial Neoliberalism,
Mass Incarceration, and Mass Deportation, 110 ¿
Neoliberalism as Culture of Indifference, 123
Part III: Catholic Mercy in a Neoliberal Age4 A Theology of Mercy | 133
Trinity, Mystery, and Mercy, 134 ¿ Anthropology, Ecclesiology,
and Mercy, 144 ¿ The Works and the Politics of Mercy, 153
5 The Politics of Mercy against Neoliberal Sacrifice | 164
Universal Destination of Goods, 165 ¿ Visit the Sick, 167 ¿
Give Food, Drink, and Clothing, 175 ¿ Abolitionism, 180 ¿
Ransom the Captive, 188 ¿ Welcome the Stranger, 195
Conclusion: For Holistic Mercy | 205
Acknowledgments| 209
Notes | 211
Bibliography | 245
Index | 269
About the author
Matthew T. Eggemeier is associate professor in the department of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he teaches courses on political theology and liberation theology. He is author of A Sacramental-Prophetic Vision: Christian Spirituality in a Suffering World (2014) and, with Peter Fritz, Send Lazarus: Catholicism and the Crises of Neoliberalism (2020).
