Dialogue books

Friendship
An encounter that fills life
by José Tolentino de Mendonça
Piemme, 2024

Friendship is one of the most important values for each of us, but also an aspect of life so natural, and sometimes taken for granted, that we rarely stop to reflect on what the word friend really means. A friend is someone who always walks by our side, even if separated by thousands of kilometers or tens of years away: in friendship, distance and distance are entirely relative dimensions. With friends we build a story that is sacred, even if it seems to us to be made only of simple and completely human things. Friendship, then, acquires a universal dimension when it overcomes borders to unite different peoples in its embrace, thus making the world a better place, a place of peace.


Democracy
The challenge of brotherhood
edited by Francesco Occhetta
The Pilgrim, 2024

Environment. Work. Justice. Reforms. Italian and European society today find themselves at a turning point and faced with an unavoidable question: what to do in the face of global geopolitical revolutions, which are creating new political and cultural balances, but which risk losing given a fundamental element, the dignity of each person. The book proposes a social paradigm based on brotherhood, whose etymology refers to "being born next to another", on both a personal and social level. When this paradigm finds its place alongside the two great cultural "idols" of our time - freedom and equality - we will have the antidote to social violence, economic inequalities, and ongoing wars.


Plan B
A score to regenerate Italy
Donzelli, 2024

Plan B is a collective project that unites various exponents of civil society with the aim of proposing an alternative to the dominant development model. For the authors, the person must be brought back to the center of political discourse, understood in all its dimensions, abandoning the individualistic perspective. Focusing on the person means taking care of them from birth to death, investing in their education and training; worry about work and living; work for the protection of the environment, for the regeneration of territories and democratic forms of the State. It also means starting from the Constitution and committing to implementing it.


God is happiness
by Paolo De Martino
Paoline Editoriale Libri, 2023

Happiness is not ephemeral joy, it is not determined by success, well-being or strong emotions. Taking inspiration from some evangelical passages, the author shows how we can "consider the Gospels as authentic maps for treasure hunts of happiness." The path to happiness is the "duty of love", because love always goes to the end. It is on the cross that Christ demonstrated its measure. The strange thing is that Jesus died, not that he was resurrected (he was God!). Very often we think that the centrality of the cross in the Christian experience consists in a sort of attachment to suffering. Anyone who lives in this perspective has completely misunderstood the evangelical message".


Aurora Antonucci
NP April 2024