TheSocialEdge.com

by Gerry McCarthy

Richard Layard is a leading economist who believes that the happiness of society does not necessarily equate to its income. Currently he is Professor Emeritus at the London School of Economics.

     Layard is also founder of the Centre for Economic Performance at The London School of Economics. Since 2000 he has been a member of the House of Lords.

     In 2005, Layard’s book Happiness: Lessons From a New Science was published in hardcover by Penguin. Last year it was released in softcover by the same publisher. The book continues to remain relevant, and is cited by more economists and policymakers.

     The following interview with Layard appeared in the December 2005 Issue of The Social Edge. I reached him by telephone in London, England.

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by Gerry McCarthy

Mary Grey is a leading British theologian and social activist. She is currently the D.J. James Professor of Pastoral Theology at the University of Wales. Some of her numerous books include: The Outrageous Pursuit of Hope, Beyond The Dark Night: A Way Forward for the Church, Prophecy and Mysticism: The Heart of The Post Modern Church, Redeeming The Dream and Feminist Images of The Sacred....

by Gerry McCarthy

Dr. Diane Stinton is a professor of theology at Daystar University in Nairobi, Kenya. She was born to Canadian medical missionaries in Angola, and spent her early formative years in Africa.

     Since 1984, Sinton has worked in missionary education in Kenya. She was formerly the first female chaplain at Daystar University from 1988 to 1996....

by Gerry McCarthy

Dr. Gregory Baum is an Officer of the Order of Canada. He taught theology at St. Michael’s University College in Toronto for 28 years. He also served as an expert for Vatican II from 1960 to 1965. Since 1986 he has been Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at McGill University in Montreal.

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Risa Shuman is the Senior Producer of Saturday Night at the Movies on TVOntario. She graduated in 1973 from York University with an Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts degree majoring in film. Shuman has worked at Saturday Night at the Movies for almost 28 years.

We continued our monthly conversation when we met in Toronto recently.

Gerry McCarthy: One movie you’ve screened before is Goodbye Columbus with Richard Benjamin and Ali MacGraw. It was made in 1969, but it still holds up. Is it a film you like?

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by Gerry McCarthy

Richard Layard is a leading economist who believes that the happiness of society does not necessarily equate to its income. He is founder of the Centre for Economic Performance at The London School of Economics. Since 2000 he has been a member of the House of Lords.

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by Gerry McCarthy

Ramsay Cook is considered one of Canada’s first public intellectuals. He’s been the recipient of the Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction (1985) and was awarded the Canada Council Molson Prize in the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2005.

     Some of his numerous books include: Canada and the French-Canadian Question, The Maple Leaf Forever, and Canada, Quebec, and the Uses of Nationalism.

     Currently Cook is adjunct professor of history at the University of Toronto and professor emeritus at York University (where he taught for 25 years). His book The Teeth of Time: Remembering Pierre Elliot Trudeau was recently published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. I reached him in Toronto to speak about the book.

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by Gerry McCarthy

Kay Hymowitz is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. The author of Ready or Not: Why Treating Children as Small Adults Endangers Their Future and Ours, she has written for numerous publications including: The New York Times, Dissent, Tikkun, and The Washington Post. Hymowitz currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband and three children....

by Gerry McCarthy

Paula Cooey is the Margaret W. Harmon Professor of Christian Theology and Culture at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has written many books including: Family, Freedom, and Faith: Building Community Today and Religious Imagination and the Body: A Feminist Analysis. Her work has also appeared in numerous academic journals.

     Cooey’s book Willing The Good: Jesus, Dissent, and Desire was recently published by Augsburg Fortress Press. I reached her in St. Paul, Minnesota, to speak about the book.

Gerry McCarthy: In Willing The Good you write that: "In short, inheriting the kingdom of heaven depends on finding Jesus in the other as the other is, in her or his specificity, without requiring reciprocity or accommodation." This a critical part of the book isn’t it? It’s something that runs counter to "compassionate conservatism?"

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by Sheila O’Keefe-McCarthy

Gail Brimbecom is parish nurse for Westminster United Church in Whitby, Ontario, and Parish Nurse Co-ordinator for InterChurch Health Ministries in Oshawa, Ontario.
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by Gerry McCarthy

Rowan Williams was elected Anglican Archbishop of Wales in December 1999. A distinguished theologian, he was Professor of Theology at Oxford from 1986 to 1992. His many books include Teresa of Avila, Open to Judgment, Sergii Bulgakov, Lost Icons: Reflections on Cultural Bereavement, and On Christian Theology. His forthcoming book Ponder These Things: Praying with Icons of the Virgin (Sheed & Ward) will be published this June. Married with two children, William’s wife, Jane Paul, teaches at Trinity College, Bristol.
     I reached Archbishop Williams by telephone in Stow Hill, Newport, South Wales. We spoke about his books Lost Icons and On Christian Theology.
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by Gerry McCarthy

Mark Kingwell is a professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto. He has lectured to academic and popular audiences throughout the world. A contributing editor at Harper’s Magazine, Kingwell’s work has appeared in numerous publications including: The New York Times Magazine, Adbusters, Utne Reader, and The Globe and Mail.

     Kingwell is the author of eight books including: Dreams of Millennium, Better Living, Marginalia, The World We Want, Practical Judgments, and Catch and Release.

     His new book Nearest Thing To Heaven: The Empire State Building and American Dreams was recently published by Yale University Press. I reached him in Toronto to speak about the book.

Gerry McCarthy: In Nearest Thing To Heaven you quote Fay Wray. She once said that: "When I’m in New York, I look at the Empire State Building and feel as though it belongs to me, or is it vice versa?" You then add: "Of course, many people feel as though the Empire State belongs to them. It is, we might say, part of its iconic genius that the building, at once so forbidding and so familiar, becomes its own kind of monumental household possession, a shared treasure not just for all New Yorkers, but of anyone who has ever visited New York –in person or, sometimes more powerfully, only via the overwhelming imaginative medium of film." Can you speak to me about this? What was Fay Wray trying to say?

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by Gerry McCarthy

Robert Ellsberg is Editor-in-Chief of Orbis Books, the publishing arm of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. In the early 1970s, he left Harvard and spent 5 years working with Dorothy Day at the Catholic Worker community in New York. In 1980 Ellsberg converted to Catholicism. He later returned to Harvard and received a degree in theology....

by Gerry McCarthy

Charles Curran is a distinguished moral theologian and the author of numerous books, including: Catholic Social Teaching 1891-Present: A Historical, Theological, and Ethical Analysis, The Catholic Moral Tradition Today: A Synthesis, and The Origins of Moral Theology in the United States. He is also co-editor of a twelve-volume series from Paulist Press entitled Readings in Moral Theology.

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by Gerry McCarthy

Jennifer Harbury’s investigation into torture began when her husband disappeared in Guatemala in 1992. She told the story of his torture and murder in her book Searching for Everardo.

     Harbury received her law degree from Harvard. She has lived and worked with human rights activists, peasants, and Mayan villagers in Guatemala. Harbury has also worked with members of the U.S. Congress and the Organization of the American States to locate her husband and 35 other members of the Guatemalan resistance believed to be held by the military. She currently directs the STOP (Stop Torture Permanently) Campaign at the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.

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by Robyn Lee

Trevor Van Der Gulik

Thirty-year-old Trevor Van Der Gulik has already spent more than half his life as an environmental activist. He recently spent over two months working as the Chief Engineer aboard The Sea Shepherd’s flagship Farley Mowat. Home again in Canada, he talked to me about the 2006 Antarctica Campaign to confront Japanese poachers of protected and endangered whales inside a designated whale sanctuary.

[Editor's Note] In this interview Captain Paul Watson is referred to as Paul. Captain Watson has spent almost three decades and 160 voyages enforcing international laws on the high seas on behalf of marine wildlife and eco-systems.

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