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. Sponsored by: <a href=”http://press.georgetown.edu/”>Georgetown University Press</a>
