Remembering and Celebrating Pope Francis: A Reading List from Reading Religion
Some Suggested Titles from AAR's Reading Religion
Reading Religion is an openly accessible book review website published by the American Academy of Religion. The site provides up-to-date coverage of scholarly publishing in religious studies, reviewed by scholars with special interest and/or expertise in the relevant subfields. Reviews aim to be concise, comprehensive, and timely.
Below, the editors of Reading Religion have selected some books and reviews from the site and have shared some titles available to review. If you’re interested in reviewing books for Reading Religion, take a look at the guidelines. If there are any books missing from the Reading Religion site that you think should be there, email readingreligion@aarweb.org.
Reviews to Read
The Works of Mercy
By Pope Francis
From the review:
“For Pope Francis, mercy is not just one virtue among others. It is the core of the gospel, the condition for salvation, and the criterion for the definitive decision of a human life’s worth (cf. Matthew 25; Luke 16). He echoes his predecessor’s encyclical Deus Caritas Est (God is Love) with this premise, and brings the idea home with his usual prophetic clarity, pastoral sensitivity, and good humor.” - Andrew James Boyd
Pope Francis As a Global Actor: Where Politics and Theology Meet
Edited by Alynna J. Lyon, Christine A. Gustafson, and Paul Christopher Manuel
From the review:
“Francis has indeed represented a seed change for Catholicism and its relationship with the wider world. The chapters in this present volume provide differentiated reading of the nature of the seed change that has been associated with the so-called ‘Francis effect’ and ‘Francis factor,’ which have seen the Pope’s teaching and action earn the attention of a wide audience, including those who might not otherwise be predisposed to give their attention to a Bishop of Rome.” – Christopher Hrynkow
Pope Francis and Interreligious Dialogue: Religious Thinkers Engage with Recent Papal Initiatives
Edited by Harold Kasimow and Alan Race
From the review:
“. . . an impressive project that brings together thirteen thinkers from various religious and humanist traditions in response to Pope Francis’ pronouncements on interreligious dialogue. A major aim of this volume is to ‘bring the reflections on interreligious collaboration, dialogue, and theology to the foreground and so fill a gap in the general critical analysis of the pope’s pronouncements … [to show that] far from being marginal to the pope’s outlook, they form an integral part of his overall approach to Christian mission when this is interpreted in its broadest sense’ (2).” – Hans Gustafson
Available for Review
Life: My Story Through History
By Pope Francis
From the publisher:
“For the first time, Pope Francis tells the story of his life as he looks back on the momentous world events that have changed history—from his earliest years during the outbreak of World War II in 1939 to the turmoil of today.”
God's Diplomats: Pope Francis, Vatican Diplomacy, and America's Armageddon
By Victor Gaetan
From the publisher:
“Using inside sources and extensive field reporting about the secretive, high-stakes world of international diplomacy, Vatican reporter Victor Gaetan takes readers to the Holy See to explicate Pope Francis's diplomacy, show why it works, and to offer readers a startling contrast to the dangerous inadequacies of recent U.S. international decisions.”
Pope Francis and Mercy: A Dynamic Theological Hermeneutic
By Gill K. Goulding, CJ
From the publisher:
“The centerpiece of Pope Francis’s pontificate from the very first days has been his proclamation of the importance of the mercy of God. While facing global problems of climate change, terror, political destabilization, refugees, and dire poverty, the Holy Father has articulated the mission of the Church through mercy, love, and forgiveness to reveal the compassion of God for all and particularly for those most vulnerable existing on the margins of society. In this compelling study, Gill Goulding, CJ, examines for the first time the critical and determinative role of mercy in Francis’s papacy using his homilies, allocutions, encyclicals, and addresses as primary sources. Goulding traces the theme of mercy in Francis’s thought, attending to its Ignatian foundations and its Christological, Trinitarian, and ecclesiological significance for the Church today, particularly the impact of his reappropriation and elevation of the discourse of mercy on the work of the Curia in Rome.”
