A ‘how-to’ book on transforming
the world
“A Civilization of
Love: What Every Catholic Can Do to Transform the World”
By Carl Anderson;
Harper One, 2008; $19.95
Reviewed by Kelly Bowring, STD
Today many ask,
“What will become of the people in our world?” More specifically, author Carl
Anderson asks, “What kind of people are we becoming in our world?” With the way
the world is headed, many wonder what can be done to turn things around. We
have perhaps heard various names used to describe our world as it stands today
– the culture of death, the clash of civilizations, the dictatorship of
relativism – but the leader of the international men’s fraternal organization
The Knights of Columbus, Carl Anderson, chooses to focus his new book on the
theme building a world of hope and love.
Anderson, a first-class theologian in his
own right, has written a how-to book that appeals to
Catholics of all backgrounds. The author does for Catholic social teaching what
Lee Iacocca did for American corporate business – he first leads a revival
within his own social enterprise at the Knights of Columbus and then calls the
rest of us to follow his success, to transform the world with love.
Anderson weaves his chapters with thematic
discussions that focus on various ways to build the civilization of love –
topics that include the power of Christ, the domestic church, globalization,
business ethics – while filling in the gaps with illustrative examples of
people and successful projects that demonstrate the practical possibility of
making his plan, which is ultimately the plan of the Church and the Holy
Spirit, a new world-wide reality. From Fr. Michael McGivney who founded the
Knights of Columbus, which is today a 1.7 million volunteer Catholic men’s
organization that gave $143 million to charity in 2006, and who was recently
regarded by Pope Benedict for his heroic virtue, to Lt. Dan O’Callaghan who
died at the World Trade Center on 9-11 and was found holding his Knights of
Columbus rosary, to Karol Wojtyla (John Paul II) who
found his vocation to become a priest while learning the “Gospel of work” in a
rock quarry in Nazi-occupied Poland. In this way,