Rev. Daniel Groody, C.S.C., assistant professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, is the author of “Globalization, Spirituality and Justice: Navigating the Path to Peace” and editor of “The Option for the Poor in Christian Theology,” both released this month.
“Globalization, Spirituality and Justice,” published by Orbis Books, offers a critical, yet inspiring vision of justice as an integral part of Christian spirituality in a complex, globalized world. At the same time, Father Groody’s analysis draws on the conviction that faith and spirituality have an integral role in the struggle to achieve a more just social order. The book offers both a theological reading of globalization and a global reading of theology. Highlighting the values from which a just world must be fashioned, it introduces readers to the core of the biblical world view, the Christian message on justice and human liberation in its historical context, and the challenge of Catholic social teaching.
Published by Notre Dame Press, “The Option for the Poor in Christian Theology” draws on leading international scholars’ reflections on liberation theology and its central premise of a preferential option for the poor. It explores how the Christian tradition can help us understand the theological foundations for the option for the poor. The book’s central focus revolves around one question: How can one live a Christian life in a world of destitution? The contributors are concerned not only with a social, economic or political understanding of poverty, but with the option for the poor as a theological concept.
Father Groody, director of the Center for Latino Spirituality and Culture in Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, also is the author of “Border of Death, Valley of Life: An Immigrant Journey of Heart and Spirit.” He has been studying Mexican immigration for almost 20 years and recently released two film documentaries, “Dying to Live: A Migrant’s Journey,” which aired on PBS, and “Strangers No Longer,” which was produced for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and their Justice for Immigrants Campaign. Both seek to present the “human face” of the immigrant, and Catholic social teaching on migration.
Father Groody recently received a fellowship to the Refugee Centre at Oxford University, where he will conduct further research on theology and immigration during the coming academic year.
Contact: Rev. Daniel Groody, C.S.C., 574-631-5096,dgroody@nd.edu
Originally published by at newsinfo.nd.edu on May 07, 2007.