In contemporary discussions of political and social thought theories of personalism remain largely absent. Personalism emerged, after World War I, onto the French cosmopolitan intellectual scene as a theory that puts the concept of the person at the center of politics. Responding, in part, to the chaos of an emergent modernity inaugurated by the First World War, personalism, with the exception of the theories of Pope John Paul II, has faded from secular discussions of politics. Its spirit and intellectual rigor, however, are recaptured with the publication of A Theory of Personalism. This distinctive and contemporary departure from hackneyed discussions of political theory introduces readers to a contemporary personalism rooted in the work of Bartolome de Las Casas and emerging again in the contributions of Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin as well as the liberation theology of Gustavo Guiterrez and Jon Sobrino. Thomas Rourke and Rosita A. Chazarreta Rourke introduce readers to new sources of personalism by investigating and revising the intellectual history of this theory and its development. Anyone interested in the relationship between religion and politics, poverty and political economy, and the cultural effects of globalization should read this book.

"This passionate defense of personalism offers an alternative to the secular philosophies of liberal capitalism and socialism. Recommended." - CHOICE

"A Theory of Personalism addresses the symptoms of our modern malaise, a malaise which is at once political, economic, and cultural—but ultimately religious.... Solutions can be found in the Rourkes' book. In them we see a Catholic approach to our difficulties, an approach that is largely unknown because it does not fit well with the paradigm of either Right or Left." - New Oxford Review

"The cumulative effect of the chapters is compelling." - Theological Studies