Catholic Social Teaching A Volume of Scholarly Essays

Catholic social teaching (CST) refers to the corpus of authoritative ecclesiastical teaching, usually in the form of papal encyclicals, on social matters, beginning with Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum (1891) and running through Pope Francis. CST is not a social science and its texts are not pragmatic primers for social activists. It is a normative exercise of Church teaching, a kind of comprehensive applied - although far from systematic - social moral theology. This volume is a scholarly engagement with this 130-year-old documentary tradition. Its twenty-three essays aim to provide a constructive, historically sophisticated, critical exegesis of all the major (and some of the minor) documents of CST. The volume's appeal is not limited to Catholics, or even just to those who embrace, or who are seriously interested in, Christianity. Its appeal is to any scholar interested in the history or content of modern CST.

Introduction: continuity, change, and contingency in modern Catholic social teaching Gerard Bradley and E. Christian Brugger; Part I. Historical Background: 1. Aquinas as a primary source of Catholic social teaching John Finnis; 2. The nineteenth century historical and intellectual context of Catholic social teaching Thomas Behr; Part II. Leo XIII to Francis: The Modern Documentary Tradition: 3. Rerum Novarum (1891) Joseph Boyle; 4. Quadragesimo Anno (1931) Samuel Gregg; 5. Pope Pius XII on social issues Ronald J. Rychlak; 6. Development in Catholic social teaching: John XXIII to Paul VI V. Bradley Lewis; 7. Social teaching in Pope John Paul II Patrick Lee; 8. Pope Benedict XVI on the political and social order Brian Benestad; 9. The social teaching of Pope Francis Daniel Mahoney; Part III. Themes in Catholic Social Teaching: 10. Catholic social teaching on the common good V. Bradley Lewis; 11. The universal destination of the world's resources Cristóbal Orrego; 12. The Apostolate of the Laity Christopher Tollefsen; 13. Globalization John Finnis; 14. Are some men angels? Modern Catholic social thought and Trust in government Christopher Wolfe; 15. The moral principles governing the immigration policies of polities Kevin Flannery SJ; 16. International finance and Catholic social teaching Robert Kennedy; 17. Subsidiarity Maria Cahill; 18. Socialism and capitalism in Catholic social thought Catherine Ruth Pakaluk; 19. Preferential option for the poor and Catholic Social teaching Martin Schlag; 20. Catholic social teaching and living the Christian life Russell Shaw; Part IV. Evaluative and Critical Reflections: 21. Catholic social teaching is Catholic moral teaching E. Christian Brugger; 22. How should Bishops teach Catholic social teaching? Gerard V. Bradley; 23. A radical critique of Catholic social teaching John M. Finnis.

Gerard V. Bradley is Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. He has been a Visiting Professor of Politics at Princeton University, a Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford, and is currently a Senior Fellow of the Witherspoon Institute. At the University of Notre Dame he is Co-Editor-in-Chief of The American Journal of Jurisprudence and serves as Co-Director of the Natural Law Institute.
E. Christian Brugger is Professor of Moral Theology at St Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary, Florida. He is author of Capital Punishment and Roman Catholic Moral Tradition, 2nd edition (2014), and more recently, The Indissolubility of Marriage and the Council of Trent (2017).