The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Pope Benedict XVI's Social Encyclical and the Future of Political Economy - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 160899368X ISBN 13: 9781608993680

Publisher: Cascade Books, 2011

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author:

Adrian Pabst is Lecturer in Politics at the University of Kent, 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).

Review:

‘Both the authors and I have seen in Caritas in Veritate a call for integrating a morality of generosity and charity into our discussion of economic policy.’ (Ross B. Emmett Journal of Markets & Morality, Volume 15, Number 2)

...the present volume provides an excellent starting point for exploring a truly magisterial document. (James M. Carr Reviews in Religion and Theology, Vol.21, No.1, January 2014)

Taken as whole, the essays in The Crisis of Global Capitalism serve to flesh out the notions of reciprocity and civil economy that animate important sections of Caritas in Veritate. More importantly they illuminate the theological anthropology and metaphysics that animate Catholic social thought. [...] In addition to clarifying the Pope's vision of economic life, these essays offer a valuable set of historical reflections on how an economic order so at variance with the truths about human nature and the cosmos evolved. (Mary Hirschfeld Studies in Christian Ethics, 27 (I), 2014)

The current economic crisis stems from a deeper crisis of a cultural imagination and civilization ethics: here is the starting point of this collection of essays which draw a new political economy facing the crisis of Western civilization. This book gathers together a range of audicious and provocative readings of Caritas in Veritate, the first papal encyclical that addresses issues immediately relevant for politic, economic, and social theory. These readings embody the kind of fruitful dialogue Pope Benedict XVI wanted to generate with his radical discourse for an alternative political economy. (Theological Book Review, Vol. 25, No.2, 2013)

It is unusual to find a biting critique of capitalism in a book written by theologians but this is the case right from page 1[...]this collection of essays brings some unexpected topics that nonetheless fit into the spectrum of encyclical Caritas in Veritate. (Yves Laberge Theological Book Review, volume 26, no 1, 2014)

[...]a useful contribution to what could be called the theology of economics.[...]the richness of this collection can be found in the acknowledgment of the way in which historic shifts in theological emphasis have been woven together with powerful developments in the political economy.[...]would make good reading for someone wanting to immerse themselves rather more into the rich and noble tradition of theological reflection on political economy, and who was particularly interested in Catholic social teaching. (Edward J Carter Modern Believing, vol.56 (2), April 2015)

About this edition

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 160899368X
• ISBN 13: 9781608993680
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304
• Editor: Pabst Adrian