Rev Dr Thomas Carroll explores a Christ-centred “new humanity”

A new book by San Souci parish priest Rev Dr Thomas Carroll is a clarion call for a Christ-centred vision of what it means to be human.

A Belief in Humanity: The untold story of conciliar humanism was launched at St Mary’s Cathedral Chapter Hall on 6 December with Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP in attendance.

In the book, Fr Carroll takes as his starting point words of Pope Francis to youth in Krakow during World Youth Day 2016, “I believe in a new humanity.”

He then draws on the Catholic intellectual tradition, and the work of the Council Fathers at Vatican II as expressed in Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae, to discuss what was behind them.

Conciliar humanism, he says, is a highly original and profound way of understanding our shared humanity which is accessible to everyone.

“All of us, regardless of whether we’re Catholic or non-believers, have two basic questions we can ask about ourselves, what am I and who am I?” Fr Carroll said in a social message prior to the book’s launch.

“Basically, that was the spirit that infused the Council Fathers during the last ecumenical council.

“It was the first time in the history of the church they addressed the question, ‘What is human? Who am I and what am I?”

These questions and the answers to them are crucial in a world of “unbridled uncertainty” and artificial intelligence inhabited by beings “suspiciously human.”

Fr Carroll is a professor of theology and philosophy at the Collegium Augustinianum in Philadelphia, and adjunct associate professor in the School of Philosophy and Theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia.

His book, launched by John Paul II Chair of Theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia Professor Tracey Rowland, is dedicated to the memory of Cardinal George Pell.

A Belief in Humanity has been praised by theologians including National Head of Theology and Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame Australia Renée Köhler-Ryan and Campion College president Dr Paul Morrissey.

“Artificial intelligence, transhumanism, and various other gnostic developments are calling into question common assumptions of what it means to be human,” wrote Dr Morrissey in an endorsement for the book.

“This book provides a robust response, drawing together the insights of the sapiential philosophical tradition.”

Fr Carroll told The Catholic Weekly he was pleased to see that Pope Francis concluded his recent encyclical letter Dilexit Nos with the same sentiment as his own, in writing that “his [Christ’s] love alone can bring about a new humanity.”

A Belief in Humanity can be purchased at the Mustard Seed Bookshop.