The Way Of Life

The passing of John Paul II provoked questions about the Pope, particularly in his relation to modernity. Was he opposed to the tenets of modernity, as some critics claimed? Or did he accommodate modernity in a way no Pope ever had, as his champions asserted?

In The Way of Life, Carson Holloway examines the fundamental philosophers of modernity-from Hobbes to Toqueville-to suggest that John Paul II's critique of modernity is intended not to reject, but to improve. Thus, claims Holloway, it is appropriate for liberal modernity to attend to the Pope's thought, receiving it not as the attack of an enemy but as the criticism of a candid friend.

Carson Holloway (PhD Northern Illinois University) is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a former William E Simon Visiting Fellow in Princeton University's James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions.

"In this excellent new book, Carson Holloway convincingly shows that the late Pope John Paul II was one of the most important political theorists and activists of the past century. In this well researched, carefully reasoned, and lucidly written study, Holloway explicates how John Paul II understood the true foundations of modern liberalism more profoundly than most liberal theorists have understood in theory what they have advocated in practice."
-David Novak, J. Richard and Dororthy Shiff Professor of Jewish Studies, University of Toronto

1. Introduction
2. The Gospel of Life and the Culture of Death
3. Hobbes and the Origins of Liberal Modernity
4. Locke