Roman Catholic Social Thought and Economic Theory: An Agenda for the Future

1991 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 566-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles K. Wilber
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Social Thought ◽  
Catholic Social Thought ◽  
The Future

Virtue, Catholic, and Feminist Ethics

2020 ◽  
pp. 45-64
Author(s):  
Anna L. Peterson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Care Ethics ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Social Thought ◽  
Feminist Ethics ◽  
Catholic Social Thought ◽  
Feminist Care Ethics

The theories highlighted in this chapter—virtue ethics, feminist ethics, Roman Catholic social thought, and liberation theology—are driven by substantive, normative claims about the good and ways to achieve it. They also all share a social view of human nature and a conviction that ethics is integrated with other parts of life, not an isolated sphere of decision-making. The chapter begins with virtue ethics, including its Aristotelian roots and several contemporary interpreters. It then turns to feminist care ethics, which makes emotions, relationships, and practices crucial to defining the good. Finally, the chapter looks at Catholic ethics, including liberation theology, which insists that in their practices, people may share in the divine process of creation and perhaps even help build the reign of God. In different ways, these models all challenge the idealist, rationalist, and individualist emphases of mainstream ethics.

Property and Justice in the Modern Encyclical Literature

1990 ◽  
Vol 83 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Andrew Lustig
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Social Thought ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Catholic Social Thought ◽  
John Xxiii ◽  
The Past ◽  
Traditional Language ◽  
The Common

In Catholic social thought since the time of Leo XIII, two important developments have influenced justificatory arguments for the institution of property. First, the traditional language of the “common good” has been augmented by an emphasis in recent encyclicals upon the dignity of persons and the rights of individuals. I shall analyze the warrants for this shift in formulation to see how changes in the language of justification reveal both continuities and discontinuities with the earlier tradition. Second, in the past century of Roman Catholic social thought, understandings of natural law have been subject to significant revision. Especially since the time of John XXIII, the papal encyclicals have sought both to “historicize” and to update those elements in the traditional discussion of property that fail to reflect modern socioeconomic circumstances. In reviewing the recent encyclical literature on these themes, I will consider how, or whether, earlier discussion can be successfully modernized without undercutting the raison d'etre of natural-law terminology in the process.

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