The Cross, The Flag, and The Bomb: American Catholics Debate War and Peace, 1960-1983

(Hardback)

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Occasionally a book of significance unexpectedly arrives on the scene. Such is Au's work. Anyone who wishes to understand the contemporary debate within the American Catholic Church on the morality of nuclear war must go no further than this superb book. Au distinguishes four positions in the American Catholic debate on war and peace according to their perspective on American society and the Church's relationship to that society. He contends that the issue of war has been closely related to the issue of culture. The question of the compatibility of Catholicism and Americanism has divided the antagonists in the debate.... Au lucidly presents the positions in this debate, grounding each in history and relating each to the wider context of Catholic thought. This is critical scholarship at its finest.-Choice
This is an uncommonly good book on an unusually rich subject.... Au analyzes the radical changes that have overtaken American Catholicism during the past generation in terms of attitudes toward questions of war and peace. He focuses on the main strands within the Church debate: realism, nuclear pacifism, pacifism, and resistance. Along the way, he also provides capsule intellectual biographies of such prominent Catholic war/peace thinkers as Thomas Merton and John Courtney Murray. Finally, he recounts the intellectual and moral struggles at the center of the recent pastoral letter issued by the Catholic bishops on The Challenge of Peace.' Clear and comprehensive, Au's study represents the most concise and compelling overview to date on this complex topic.-Library Journal
"This is an uncommonly good book on an unusually rich subject.... Au analyzes the radical changes that have overtaken American Catholicism during the past generation in terms of attitudes toward questions of war and peace. He focuses on the main strands within the Church debate: realism, nuclear pacifism, pacifism, and resistance. Along the way, he also provides capsule intellectual biographies of such prominent Catholic war/peace thinkers as Thomas Merton and John Courtney Murray. Finally, he recounts the intellectual and moral struggles at the center of the recent pastoral letter issued by the Catholic bishops on The Challenge of Peace.' Clear and comprehensive, Au's study represents the most concise and compelling overview to date on this complex topic."-Library Journal
"Occasionally a book of significance unexpectedly arrives on the scene. Such is Au's work. Anyone who wishes to understand the contemporary debate within the American Catholic Church on the morality of nuclear war must go no further than this superb book. Au distinguishes four positions in the American Catholic debate on war and peace according to their perspective on American society and the Church's relationship to that society. He contends that the issue of war has been closely related to the issue of culture. The question of the compatibility of Catholicism and Americanism has divided the antagonists in the debate.... Au lucidly presents the positions in this debate, grounding each in history and relating each to the wider context of Catholic thought. This is critical scholarship at its finest."-Choice

Author Bio

/f William /i A.