Commonweal (magazine)

Commonweal is a liberal[1][2][lower-alpha 1] American journal of opinion, edited and managed by lay Catholics, headquartered in the Interchurch Center in New York City. It is the oldest independent Catholic journal of opinion in the United States.

For other uses, see Commonweal (disambiguation).
Commonweal
EditorDominic Preziosi
Frequency11 issues a year
Circulation20,000
First issue1924
CompanyCommonweal Foundation
CountryUnited States
Based inNew York City
LanguageEnglish
Websitecommonwealmagazine.org
ISSN0010-3330

History

Founded in 1924 by Michael Williams (1877–1950) and the Calvert Associates, Commonweal is the oldest independent Roman Catholic journal of opinion in the United States. The magazine was originally modeled on The New Republic and The Nation but “expressive of the Catholic note” in covering literature, the arts, religion, society, and politics.

One of the magazine's most famous contributors is Dorothy Day, who began writing for it in 1929. In 1932, she met Peter Maurin, who had visited the offices of Commonweal to spread his ideas of a more radical practice of charity; the editor of the magazine turned him away but suggested he contact Day. Together, they founded the Catholic Worker.[4]

Among its other notable contributors, Commonweal has also published Hannah Arendt, Hilaire Belloc, Georges Bernanos, G. K. Chesterton, Terry Eagleton, Graham Greene, Elizabeth Johnson, Alasdair MacIntyre, Jacques Maritain, Thomas Merton, Marilynne Robinson, and Charles Taylor. It has printed the short fiction of Whittaker Chambers, Alice McDermott, J. F. Powers, Valerie Sayers, and Evelyn Waugh; the poetry of W. H. Auden, John Berryman, Robert Lowell, Theodore Roethke, and John Updike; and the artwork of Jean Charlot, Rita Corbin, Fritz Eichenberg, and Emil Antonucci.[5]

Overview

The journal, tagged as "A Review of Religion, Politics, and Culture," is run as a not-for-profit enterprise and managed by a twenty-six-member board of directors. The word "commonweal" is a reference to an important term in the political philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, who argued that legitimate leaders must prioritize "the common good" or "the commonweal" in making political decisions.[6]

Commonweal publishes editorials, columns, essays, and poetry, along with film, book, and theater reviews. Eleven issues of Commonweal are released each year, with a circulation of approximately 20,000. In 1951, Commonweal was hit by financial troubles and almost shut down because of a loss in subscribers.[7]

Viewpoint

Although Commonweal maintains a relatively strong focus on issues of specific interest to liberal Catholics, this focus is not exclusionary. A broad range of issues—religious, political, social, and cultural—are examined independent of any relationship to Catholicism and the church. Commonweal has attracted contributors from all points of the mainstream political spectrum in the United States.

See also

Notes
  1. Though see Sandbrook (2007) and Clancy & Green (1987)[3] for a more refined comparison of Commonweal with the American liberal tradition.

References
  1. Jordan, P.; Baumann, P. (1999). Commonweal Confronts the Century: Liberal Convictions, Catholic Tradition. Touchstone. back cover. ISBN 978-0-684-86276-7.
  2. Sandbrook, D. (2007). Eugene McCarthy: The Rise and Fall of Postwar American Liberalism. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-307-42577-5.
  3. Clancy, W.; Green, E. (1987). Time's Covenant: The Essays and Sermons of William Clancy. University of Pittsburgh Press Digital Editions. University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-8229-7645-5.
  4. Loughery, John; Randolph, Blythe (2020). Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 123, 133–34. ISBN 978-1-9821-0349-1.
  5. "A Brief History of Commonweal | Commonweal Magazine". www.commonwealmagazine.org.
  6. See e.g., Summa Theologiae, I-II, Q. 97, A. 1
  7. "The Press: Commonweal & Woe". Time. October 15, 1951 – via content.time.com.

Further reading
  • Rodger Van Allen, The Commonweal and American Catholicism: The Magazine, the Movement, the Meaning, Philadelphia: Fortune Press, 1974
  • Rodger Van Allen, Being Catholic: Commonweal from the Seventies to the Nineties, Loyola University Press, 1993
  • Patrick Jordan and Paul Baumann, Commonweal Confronts the Century: Liberal Convictions, Catholic Tradition, Touchstone, 1999
  • Robert B. Clements (1972). "The Commonweal: The Williams-Shuster Years"
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