Ballina man publishes his second book
Ballina native Matt Moran, who now lives in Cork, recently published his second book – The Theology of Integral Human Development.
Launched in Dublin by Deputy Carol Nolan, in this book Matt explores the role of faith in international development and in public affairs.
The foreword was written by Dr. David Begg, who served as CEO of Concern Worldwide and is now adjunct professor at the Institute of Social Sciences at Maynooth University. Prof. Fainche Ryan, director of the Loyola Institute at TCD, also spoke at the launch.
The 274-page book explores the meaning of integral human development; the intrinsic values that faith brings to international development; the unique missionary approach to development interventions in the global south; human dignity and right relations that enable people to flourish and live life to the full; justice, peace and integrity of creation; the importance of inter-religious dialogue for peaceful co-existence; and the faith inter-face with the UN, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNAIDS, World Bank, WHO and the EU.
The author also delves into the receding place of faith in public affairs in an increasingly secular Ireland; the relationship between Church and State in Ireland; the Irish government’s interface with FBOs in the provision of health and social care services; the fractious relationship between the Catholic Church and the Irish media; the evolving clash between Christian values and human rights as in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and the un-challenged findings on bias and serious dysfunction within the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
The book has been strongly endorsed by Cardinal Peter Turkson, Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development at the Vatican, and theologians Dr. Donal Dorr, who is a native of Foxford, Prof. Laurenti Magesa in Kenya, and Dr. Anthony Gittins, Emeritus Professor of Theology and Culture at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
The book can be purchased in Knock Shrine Bookshop and the Father Peyton Centre at Attymass, as well as online at www.buythebook.ie and at www.lettertecbookstore.com.
In 2016, Matt Moran published The Legacy of Irish Missionaries Lives On, detailing how the missionary work commenced and carried on for many decades in the global south is now being continued by local religious and indigenous missionaries whom they recruited and trained. Mary Robinson wrote the foreword for that book.