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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 261.708828273
EAN num: 9780385522281
ISBN number: 0385522282
Label: Doubleday
Manufacturer: Doubleday
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 272
Printing Date: August 12, 2008
Publishing house: Doubleday
Release Date: August 12, 2008
Sale Popularity Level: 7471
Studio: Doubleday
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“People who take God seriously will not remain silent about their faith. They will often disagree about doctrine or policy, but they won’t be quiet. They can’t be. They’ll act on what they believe, sometimes at the cost of their reputations and careers. Obviously the common good demands a respect for other people with different beliefs and a willingness to compromise whenever possible. But for Catholics, the common good can never mean muting themselves in public debate on foundational issues of human dignity. Christian faith is always personal but never private. This is why any notion of tolerance that tries to reduce faith to private idiosyncrasy, or a set of opinions that we can indulge at home but need to be quiet about in public, will always fail.”
—From the Introduction
Few topics in recent years have ignited as much public debate as the balance between religion and politics. Does religious thought have any place in political discourse? Do religious believers have the right to turn their values into political action? What does it truly mean to have a separation of church and state? The very heart of these important questions is here addressed by one of the leading voices on the topic, Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop of Denver.
While American society has ample room for believers and nonbelievers alike, Chaput argues, our public life must be considered within the context of its Christian roots. American democracy does not ask its citizens to put aside their deeply held moral and religious beliefs for the sake of public policy. In fact, it requires exactly the opposite.
As the nation’s founders knew very well, people are fallible. The majority of voters, as history has shown again and again, can be uninformed, misinformed, biased, or simply wrong. Thus, to survive, American democracy depends on an engaged citizenry —people of character, including religious believers, fighting for their beliefs in the public square—respectfully but vigorously, and without apology. Anything less is bad citizenship and a form of theft from the nation’s health. Or as the author suggests: Good manners are not an excuse for political cowardice.
American Catholics and other persons of goodwill are part of a struggle for our nation’s future, says Charles J. Chaput. Our choices, including our political choices, matter. Catholics need to take an active, vocal, and morally consistent role in public debate. We can’t claim to personally believe in the sanctity of the human person, and then act in our public policies as if we don’t. We can’t separate our private convictions from our public actions without diminishing both. In the words of the author, “How we act works backward on our convictions, making them stronger or smothering them under a snowfall of alibis.”
Vivid, provocative, clear, and compelling, Render unto Caesar is a call to American Catholics to serve the highest ideals of their nation by very first living their Catholic faith deeply, authentically.
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Rated by buyers 
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Charles Chaput is one of the most honest, heartfelt Catholic authors of our time. His societal observations in Render Unto Caesar are both honest and sobering, yet his insights are deeply inspiring in the way that they challenge a person of faith to truly LIVE what they say they believe. "Render Unto Caesar" challenges the world's logic, yet does so for the sake of preserving the goodness of our society - in our marriages, in our families and thus, by extension, the peace and joy of our nation as a whole.
Rated by buyers 
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The book is very conversational in style with many stories mixed in with some church teachings. I had been hoping for more definitive statements and guidance. It did lead me to go and read Living the Gospel of Life, which provided more of the guidance I was hoping for. Archbishop Chaput does state that if the book does nothing else than lead people to read Living the Gospel of Life, then the book will have accomplished its goal.
Rated by buyers 
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Chaput is the Catholic archbishop of Denver, and the very first Native American archbishop ordained. Render Unto Caesar is both a religious and a political book, weaving the two together. His main thesis is that people of faith, particularly Catholics, need to be more vocal about their faith, be faithful Catholics first, before their national citizenship, and that Catholic politicians need to reflect their Catholic beliefs before their personal ones. There is a good deal of the history of the Catholic Church's involvement in secular politics and governing, and the history of Catholics in America, including the election of the very first Catholic president, John F. Kennedy. On those areas, Render Unto Caesar reads very well. The aspects of requiring American citizens and elected leaders to follow directions as interpreted by Catholic leaders, many of whom making those policies are not Americans, leaves something to be desired. When JFK was running for office, anti-Catholic groups spread conspiracy theory that the decisions coming from the White House would actually be made at the Vatican. The same sorts of rumors surrounded Mitt Romney's election run, this time focusing around his Mormon faith.
While Chaput's position may make sense in a religious setting, and there is no reason why people of any faith cannot reflect it in their public, political and social lives, and still make decisions based on their own conscience. That freedom of choice is the most basic right of American citizenship, and advocating anything else brings back memories of state religions, pogroms and religious wars--all of which we fought one war to free ourselves from.
Rated by buyers -
Written in the same way Archbishop Chaput speaks- down to earth and easy to follow yet full of wisdom and powerful insights. Archbishop Chaput is a living saint and this book reflects his holiness in the matters of politics- where few holy people go. His insights into American Democracy will have you thinking differently about your role in our country
Rated by buyers -
"the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do" -1Ch12
To this concise book by Bishop Chaput, this non-Catholic says: Wow, a true tour d'force. A continuous flow of historical, cultural, moral, and spiritual insight and perspective.
At times the text flows almost non-stop with memorable quotes, representing an enormous amount of research, imparting a deep well of understanding and wisdom.
I liked the way Chaput didn't gloss over the church's difficulties in implementing the Vatican II changes, or indeed, the need for those changes prior to that council. I think this was a very honest and perceptive presentation of the challenges facing not only Catholics, though the book was certainly geared primarily to them, but all Christians, and indeed all sincere religious, as well.
The game has shifted, and aggressive secularists are at the throats of all who would live by - and especially proclaim - standards of objective morality. The basic theme of this book is one by which every believer would be benefited by reconsidering: we are in a battle, the stakes are real and high, and we cannot legitimately excuse ourselves. If we fail to rise to the challenge, then we fail to live out the Gospel in its fullest and most necessary expression at this point in history, and one day we will have to face that shameful, unloving reality before both our Redeemer and the ones we allowed this culture to victimize.
Highly recommended. Bravo, Bishop Chaput.
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