1968 - Culture and Counterculture

“This magnificent collection of essays shows how Christopher Dawson’s ‘cultural mind’ can be extended beyond his own sphere of interests to analyze more recent and deeply influential moments in modern history such as 1968. The logic of cultural revolution so evident in that year demands vigorous, creative, and patient responses from profoundly Christian minds, as demonstrated by the authors of this volume.”


—Joseph T. Stuart, Associate Professor of History, University of Mary, author of Christopher Dawson: A Cultural Mind in the Age of the Great War





“The year 1968 reflected and furthered a cultural revolution whose effects still reverberate. These essays provide a sober look at that revolution through its effects on a range of areas, and to provide a critically needed assessment of its effects on the church and the wider societies, particularly in the West.”


—Gerald Russello, editor of Christopher Dawson’s Religion and Culture





“1968 illuminates current junctures of church and world. Readers rediscover the impact of the seismic events of 1968 in analyses as incisive as they are profound. Gourlay and Matthys’s volume demonstrates that one year in history continues to influence how Catholics worship, think, act, and dispute together.”


—Renée Kӧhler-Ryan, Dean, School of Philosophy and Theology, Sydney, University of Notre Dame, Australia





“1968 remains a key symbolic milestone for ‘church’ and ‘world’: its reverberations still echo in the ears of both. A rigorous, Catholic interrogation of its history and legacy is long overdue. Published in 2020—a year set to itself become a shorthand for political, social, cultural, economic, and ecclesial upheaval—Gourlay and Matthys’s fascinating collection is just what we have been waiting for.”


—Stephen Bullivant, Professor of Theology and the Sociology of Religion, St Mary’s University, United Kingdom