In 1946, John J. Carroll, a young Jesuit seminarian, arrived in war-torn Philippines. Studying and teaching for six years he became deeply aware of the grave social issues hiding beneath the surface of the nation. Returning to the United States, he finished his Jesuit studies and studied sociology at Fordham and Cornell Universities. Back in the Philippines, his teaching and research on Philippine social structure, and social issues justified the title of his earlier book, Engaging Society: The Sociologist in a War Zone. An eight-year stint at the Gregorian University in Rome brought him into contact with students from Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa and broadened his vision.
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Fr. John J. Carroll, S.J., writes both as a priest and as a social scientist, in full awareness of the problems that may crop up when two such potentially contradictory roles are combined. But he unfailingly weaves then into one another with rigor and grace. He is an intellectual warrior in a battle zone, and offers no apologies for going beyond mere observation and academic analysis. These articles are elegantly wrought in anger, compassion, and courage—in the true tradition of that maverick sociologist, C. Wright Mills. —Randy David, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of the Philippines
The first volume, Engaging Society: The Sociologist in a War Zone, was also published by Ateneo de Manila University Press in 2006.