In Human Dignity and Liberal Politics, Patrick Riordan constructs a case for liberalism’s compatibility with the Catholic common good tradition. Originally delivered as the 2021 D’Arcy lecture series at Campion Hall, Oxford, the book considers this tradition across its historical development and use in modern Catholic Social Teaching. Canvassing the varied approaches of Aristotle, Augustine, and Thomas Aquinas, among others, Riordan offers a rich exploration of the common good tradition, cautioning against its reduction to an alternative political vision capable of replacing the prevailing social order. As Riordan notes, Catholic Social Teaching’s insistence that modern liberal states should serve the common good suggests, implicitly, that such service is within liberal states’ realm of possibility.

Riordan notes that the common good tradition is too often pitched in contrast to political liberalism, as if this system was intrinsically incapable of serving the common good. This mistaken understanding has helped give rise to the so-called ‘Benedict Option,’ espoused in some Catholic circles, that idealizes a withdrawal from society into small-scale communities. Retreating into such communities, under this option, may well shield people of faith from the inevitably difficult challenges of large-scale societies; however, it does nothing to address greater challenges. Riordan explores how political liberalism, instead, offers a stable arena for the messy but necessary deliberation over the conflicting demands that typically emerge in societies pursuing common goods. This deliberative system can facilitate mutually-agreeable compromises and solutions, which ultimately better serves common goods and human dignity.

Riordan values liberalism’s concern for human freedom, seeking to recover its original orientation to truth and to creating conditions conducive to individual flourishing. Citing the example of Pope Benedict XVI, who engaged constructively in public discourse with a consistent emphasis on freedom oriented to the horizon of truth, Riordan creatively argues instead for a ‘Pope Benedict Option.’ This option does not withdraw from public life into safe, small communities, but rather proactively participates in the hard but necessary task of public deliberation in the service of the common good, considered here a heuristic device calling the social order ever-forward.

Riordan makes a bold and valuable contribution to Catholic thought on the common good tradition by demonstrating its compatibility with liberalism. His work helpfully illustrates Catholic social thought as a learning process, continually readjusting its insights by interaction with social conditions. Through this work, Riordan contributes well to this learning process.