Monday 8 January 2018

The Catholic Worker Movement: Intellectual and Spiritual Origins

This book is essential reading for understanding the motivation behind the original Catholic Worker Movement.
The founders of the movement, Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, met during the Great Depression in 1932. Their collaboration sparked something that has been both an inspiration and a reproach to Catholics.
Gradually progressing from a bohemian lifestyle, to radical street politics, to the founding of the Catholic Worker Movement, Dorothy Day began to live a life that took the message of the Gospel to heart. 
Peter Maurin, less celebrated but equally important to the movement that embraced and uplifted the poor amongst us was once described by Dorothy Day as "a genius, a saint, an agitator, a writer, a lecturer, a poor man and a shabby tramp."
Mark and Louise Zwick's thorough research into the Catholic Worker Movement reveals who influenced Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day and how that influence materialized into something much more than just good ideas.