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The Coherence of Catholic Social Thought: Toward a Theology of Involvement
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
Abstract
Although recent attempts to state the coherence or integrating idea within Catholic Social Thought have contributed much to our understanding of the tradition, the attempts have been based on improper methodological presuppositions. For this reason the authors offering these theories have been unable to justify their selection and emphasis on certain documents; they have not fully considered the challenge to their theories by development in the integrating idea taken as most essential; and they have not been methodologically clear about the role which their own vision plays in the historical retrieval. Recognition of such problems in historical analysis, and the path toward dealing with them today in an historically conscious way, is found in the work of Ernst Troeltsch.
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References
1 There is a wealth of papal and conciliar documents which can potentially fall under the heading of Catholic Social Thought. With few exceptions, I will generally restrict my analysis to those documents which, it is generally agreed, have done the most to define this tradition. These include Rerum Novarum (, Leo XIII, 1891)Google Scholar, Quadragesimo Anno (, Pius XI, 1931)Google Scholar, Mater et Magistra (, John XXIII, 1961)Google Scholar, Pacem in Terris (, John XXIII, 1963)Google Scholar, Gaudium et Spes (Second Vatican Council), Populorum Progressio (, Paul VI, 1967)Google Scholar, Octogesima Adveniens (, Paul VI, 1971)Google Scholar, Justice in the World (Synod of Bishops, 1971), Laborem Exercens (Paul, Pope John II, 1981)Google Scholar, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (Paul, Pope John II, 1987)Google Scholar, and Centesimus Annus (Paul, Pope John II, 1991).Google Scholar
2 Coleman, John A., “Development of Church Social Teaching” in Curran, Charles and McCormick, Richard S.J., eds., Readings in Moral Theology No. 5 (New York: Paulist, 1986).Google Scholar
3 Ibid., 176.
4 Schuck, Michael J., That They Be One (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1991), 173.Google Scholar
5 I take this most helpful expression from Reist, Benjamin A., Toward a Theology of Involvement: The Thought of Ernst Troeltsch (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1966).Google Scholar
6 See Coleman, , “Development of Church Social Teaching,” 170.Google Scholar See also Curran, Charles, “The Changing Anthropological Basis of Catholic Social Ethics” in Curran, and McCormick, , eds., Readings No. 5.Google Scholar
7 Hollenbach, David S.J., Claims in Conflict: Retrieving and Renewing the Catholic Human Rights Tradition (New York: Paulist, 1979).Google Scholar
8 Ibid., 122.
9 Ibid., 132.
10 These include Rerum Novarum, Quadragesimo Anno, Mater et Magistra, Pacem in Terris, Gaudium et Spes, and Populorum Progressio.
11 Hollenbach, , Claims in Conflict, 89.Google Scholar
12 Schuck, , That They Be One, 173–89.Google Scholar
13 Ibid., 179.
14 Curran, , “The Changing Anthropological Basis,” 188.Google Scholar
15 Ibid., 189-94.
16 Ibid., 195-97.
17 Schuck, , That They Be One, 180.Google Scholar
18 Ibid., 180.
19 Ibid., 181.
20 The use of natural law, human dignity, and in some measure option for the poor all find explicit mention in the documents as true sources for ethical insight.
21 Dorr, Donal, Option for the Poor (Maryknoll, NY: Orhis, 1983 and 1992).Google Scholar
22 Ibid., 2.
23 Ibid., 364-65.
24 Following his friend Max Weber, Troeltsch understood the historic forms of Christianity according to a church-sect typology. For Troeltsch it was the issue of tension with culture that distinguished the two; for Weber it was the question of voluntary membership. Mysticism is a more modern and individualistic manifestation of the Christian spirit which tends toward indifference to the social problem. Indeed, Troeltsch makes the following rather biting statement: “From the very outset mysticism declined to make any attempt to find a solution of the (social) problem; in all this confusion it only discerns how impossible it is for the world to give the peace which passes all understanding” (Troeltsch, Ernst, The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches, trans. Wyon, Olive [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981], [1011).Google Scholar
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26 Ibid., 124.
27 Ibid., 126-27.
28 Ibid., 135.
29 Roman Catholicism would traditionally only distinguish between the stable faith of the church and varying levels of understanding. Orthodox Protestantism would typically refer to the Bible.
30 Troeltsch, , “Essence,” 130.Google Scholar
31 Ibid., 140.
32 Ibid., 151-53.
33 Ibid., 157.
34 Ibid., 160.
35 My translation. In the original: “Das Wesen ist eine intuitive Abstraktion, eine religiös-ethische Kritik, ein beweglicher Entwicklungsbegriff und das für die gestaltende und neuverknüpfende Arbeit der Zukunft einzusetzende Ideal. Es ist von allem etwas und im Grunde eine eigene selbständige religiöse Idee. Die Wesensbestimmung ist die Krone und zugleich die Selbstaufhebung der historischen Theologie, die Vereinigung des historischen Elementes mit dem normativen oder doch dem Zukunft gestaltenden der Theologie” (Troeltsch, Ernst, “Was heißt ‘Wesen des Christentums’?” in Troeltsch: Zur religiösen Lage, Religionsphilosophie und Ethik [Aalen: Scientia, 1962], 433).Google Scholar
36 Troeltsch, , The Social Teaching, 999–1000.Google Scholar
37 It is precisely the church form which is characterized by an ethic of compromise in the Troeltschian sense. The sect represents the possibility of protest against such compromise.
38 Reist, , Toward a Theology of Involvement, 160–61.Google Scholar
39 Troeltsch, , The Social Teaching, 1011.Google Scholar
40 Novak, Michael, The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (New York: Free Press, 1993).Google Scholar
41 Neuhaus, Richard John, Doing Well and Doing Good: The Challenge to the Christian Capitalist (New York: Doubleday, 1992).Google Scholar