Is man an isolated, voluntaristic, autonomous individual, as modernity would have him? Or is he subject to natural, social, and transcendent orders? Much has been written since Rerum Novarum in 1891 on the general outlines of Catholic social, economic, and political thought, but what Catholics need today is a sure guide to how to live out these principles in their daily lives. To this end, Brian McCall’s To Build the City of God responds with chapters on marriage and the family, dress, education, profit and wealth, debt, politics in the age of Obama, and much more. The modern world has erected a monstrous edifice on false principles, which, through its own intrinsic nihilism, is hollow to the core. Given time, it must collapse, and so with clarity and insight the author points the way for Catholics to live always under the reign of Christ; and to bring His kingship to a world increasingly desperate for the only Way that can truly bind us in temporal solidarity and transcendent communion.
Praise
“To Build the City of God is an excellent, scholarly, and yet eminently practical book that underlines ancient patristic themes in their all-too-analogous modern setting: in the face of cynicism and despair, the supreme importance of Truth for the happiness of individuals and the polis; and in a society that desperately requires correction and transformation in Christ, the need for men and women to be in the world but not of it. The author also offers advice to Christian parents seeking to raise children who recognize their duties to fellow countrymen, but first and foremost their duties to the message of the Incarnate Word. Readers will discover in this — as in all of Brian McCall’s work — the true mettle of a contemporary Church Father.”
— JOHN RAO
author of Black Legends and the Light of the World
“Brian McCall’s new book perfectly demonstrates both integrity in research and courage in judgment, particularly in the fields of economics and politics outside modern patterns. In his considerations of money, debt, just price, and usury, he develops his own alternative to an ‘Americanist’ worldview—though this not a really a personal perspective but indeed a Catholic one.”
— MIGUEL AYUSO
Pontifical Comillas University (Madrid); President of the International Union of Catholic Lawyers
“The Social Kingship of Christ is not a mere academic issue, but a vital principle that must permeate every aspect of life, including marriage, family, education, economics, and the body politic. We are grateful that, in To Build the City of God, Brian McCall ignores the siren songs of modernity in all its forms, bringing us back to perennial Catholic social principles that satisfy reason and our sensus Catholicus.”
— JOHN VENNARI
Editor, Catholic Family News
“For more than half a century, ‘conservatives’ in America have strained in vain against the liberal zeitgeist. They have been powerless to arrest its advance for one reason: they are not conservatives, but rather constitute liberalism’s right wing—the controlled ‘opposition’—which exists to undermine any meaningful resistance. In his new book, Brian McCall offers a political, moral, and social alternative that is grounded in Truth as old as history.”
— MICHAEL J. MATT
Editor, The Remnant
About the Author
Brian M. Mccall is Associate Dean for Academics at the University of Oklahoma College of Law and holds the Orpha and Maurice Merrill Professorship in Law. Holding degrees from Yale, the University of London, and the University of Pennsylvania, he has authored numerous academic articles and books and is a regular contributor to several national Catholic newspapers and journals.
