Purposeful or Indulgent? Everyday Solidarity

Sponsored by Georgetown University Press

Recorded on 10/19/2020
Posted in The Authority File

Episode 160

The Fullness of Free Time: A Theological Account of Leisure and Recreation in the Moral Life

What is solidarity in Catholic philosophy, and what does it have to do with leisure? How does “everyday solidarity” differ from Catholic solidarity? Can “everyday solidarity” help a lay person make decisions about their free time? These are all questions Conor Kelly, assistant professor at Marquette University, explores in his new book, The Fullness of Free Time: A Theological Account of Leisure and Recreation in the Moral Life.

Kelly explains solidarity as a way of thinking less about “number one” in order to create a good for everyone instead of just a good for the individual. But to his thinking, that good isn’t purely utilitarian. It’s more than that, and the reason why is wrapped up in Catholic social teaching. Kelly then takes this definition and, as he says, creates “a new species” within the genus of solidarity called “everyday solidarity.”

But isn’t thinking about leisure an inherently “bourgeois” project, since not everyone has access to free time? Kelly explores that question and others in this week’s installment.

About the guest:

Conor Kelly
Assistant professor of theology
Marquette University

Conor Kelly is an assistant professor of theology at Marquette University. He is a Catholic theological ethicist who works at the intersection of fundamental moral theology and applied ethics. He is the coeditor of Poverty: Responding Like Jesus with Kenneth R. Himes and has published articles in a number of journals, including Theological Studies, the Journal of Moral Theology, Horizons, and the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics.

Check out other episodes in this series:

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