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The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Pope Benedict XVI's Social Encyclical and the Future of Political Economy
This collection of essays outlines a new political economy. Twenty years after the demise of Soviet communism, the global recession into which free-market capitalism has plunged the world economy provides a unique opportunity to chart an alternative path. Both the left-wing adulation of centralized statism and the right-wing fetishization of market liberalism are part of a secular logic that is collapsing under the weight of its own inner contradictions. It is surely no coincidence that the crisis of global capitalism occurs at the same time as the crisis of secular modernity. Building on the tradition of Catholic social teaching since the groundbreaking encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891), Pope Benedict XVI's Caritas in Veritate is the most radical intervention in contemporary debates on the future of economics, politics, and society. Benedict outlines a Catholic "third way" that combines strict limits on state and market power with a civil economy centered on mutualist businesses, cooperatives, credit unions, and other reciprocal arrangements. His call for a civil economy also represents a radical "middle" position between an exclusively religious and a strictly secular perspective. Thus, Benedict's vision for an alternative political economy resonates with people of all faiths and none.
"The current economic crisis is in fact a deeper crisis of cultural imagination and civilizational ethics. This collection of bold and provocative readings of Caritas in Veritate displays an intellectual verve unafraid to think beyond the fragmentations of modernity. By fully exploring the ontology of communion and gift, I believe this collection bears witness to the kind of daring discourse Pope Benedict XVI wanted to ignite. What is more, I believe the essays exemplify the kind of fruitful dialogue needed, not only for an adequate response to the crisis of Western civilization, but also to realize an economy that would facilitate the flourishing of the human heart. Adrian Pabst is to be commended for realizing this collection of excellent essays."
-Javier Martinez Fernandez Archbishop of Granada
"Anyone interested in finding a 'third way' between today's barely regulated capitalism and state socialism will find much to reward them in this collection. It goes beyond the rigid limitations of contemporary liberal thinking in order to explore some of the crucial resources, intellectual and cultural, that we need to devise a new politics of the Left."
-Charles Taylor author of A Secular Age
"Caritas in Veritate is the first papal encyclical that addresses issues immediately relevant for economic and social theory. It also embodies challenges that concern directly the academic community of economists, in particular the nature and scope of the firm, the market and profit. The reading of this important book is the best way for engaging with these themes and discovering the significance of Caritas in Veritate in the present theoretical debate."
-Luigino Bruni co-author of Civil Economy Author
"The current economic crisis is in fact a deeper crisis of cultural imagination and civilizational ethics. This collection of bold and provocative readings of Caritas in Veritate displays an intellectual verve unafraid to think beyond the fragmentations of modernity. By fully exploring the ontology of communion and gift, I believe this collection bears witness to the kind of daring discourse Pope Benedict XVI wanted to ignite. What is more, I believe the essays exemplify the kind of fruitful dialogue needed, not only for an adequate response to the crisis of Western civilization, but also to realize an economy that would facilitate the flourishing of the human heart. Adrian Pabst is to be commended for realizing this collection of excellent essays."
-Javier Martinez Fernandez Archbishop of Granada
"Anyone interested in finding a 'third way' between today's barely regulated capitalism and state socialism will find much to reward them in this collection. It goes beyond the rigid limitations of contemporary liberal thinking in order to explore some of the crucial resources, intellectual and cultural, that we need to devise a new politics of the Left."
-Charles Taylor author of A Secular Age
"Caritas in Veritate is the first papal encyclical that addresses issues immediately relevant for economic and social theory. It also embodies challenges that concern directly the academic community of economists, in particular the nature and scope of the firm, the market and profit. The reading of this important book is the best way for engaging with these themes and discovering the significance of Caritas in Veritate in the present theoretical debate."
-Luigino Bruni co-author of Civil Economy Author
304 pages, Paperback
First published November 10, 2011
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About the author
Adrian Pabst
23 books10 followersAdrian Pabst is Lecturer in Politics at the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK, and teaches political economy at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Lille (Sciences Po), France. He is the author of Metaphysics: The Creation of Hierarchy (2012).
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April 14, 2014
This collection of essays is truly quite excellent and is a must read for all those who are interested in Catholic Social Teaching and those who are more generally interested in the Christian relationship to economics. The various essays in this collection are supposed to be commenting on the papal encyclical Charity in Truth: Caritas in Veritate by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Not all of them are, but I'll forgive them as they nevertheless are seeking to find a Christian response to the issues created by capitalism.
On that front, each author, however different from one another they may be, are certainly agreed that the current economic system in most of the West, and in truth the world as related to global trade, is broken, and probably from its foundations. So, if you think free market capitalism is good, this book will challenge you. Nevertheless, with one possible exception (Eugene McCarraher), these authors are equally not Communists in the Marxist sense of the word. McCarraher isn't either, he simply, following Herbert McCabe sees more room for revolution, even violent revolution to resolve the issues of class struggle. Rather, what all of them seek, is a new (or an old) way of doing economics which is focused more on charity, justice, and human flourishing than profit making. This collection of essays needs a conclusion, but perhaps the only real conclusion is to move forward and begin to implement the very reforms being called for.
On that front, each author, however different from one another they may be, are certainly agreed that the current economic system in most of the West, and in truth the world as related to global trade, is broken, and probably from its foundations. So, if you think free market capitalism is good, this book will challenge you. Nevertheless, with one possible exception (Eugene McCarraher), these authors are equally not Communists in the Marxist sense of the word. McCarraher isn't either, he simply, following Herbert McCabe sees more room for revolution, even violent revolution to resolve the issues of class struggle. Rather, what all of them seek, is a new (or an old) way of doing economics which is focused more on charity, justice, and human flourishing than profit making. This collection of essays needs a conclusion, but perhaps the only real conclusion is to move forward and begin to implement the very reforms being called for.
Displaying 1 of 1 review