Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism - Paperback

by Michael Novak (Author), Jana Novak (Author)

In an aged response to Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Michael Novak discusses how the powerful cultural influence Catholicism has had throughout the world is necessary in any vision of the future of capitalism.

Drawing on the major works of modern Papal thought, The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism demonstrates how Catholic tradition has come to reflect a richer interpretation of capitalist culture.

Novak offers an original and penetrating conception of social justice and applies a newly formulated notion of social activism to the urgent worldwide problem of ethnicity, race, and poverty.

With this fresh rethinking of the Catholic ethic, Novak presents timely research that will challenge citizens in the West seeking a realistic, moral vision and those living in the two historically Catholic regions of the world--Eastern Europe and Latin America--as they take their first steps as market economies.

Back Jacket

Any vision of capitalism's future prospects must take into account the powerful cultural influence Catholicism has exercised throughout the world. The Church had for generations been reluctant to come to terms with capitalism, but, as Michael Novak argues in this important book, a hundred-year-long debate within the Church has yielded a richer and more humane vision of capitalism than that described in Max Weber's classic The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Novak notes that the influential Catholic intellectuals who, early in this century saw through Weber's eyes an economic system marked by ruthless individualism and cold calculation had misread the reality. For, as history has shown, the lived experience of capitalism has depended to a far greater extent than they had realized on a culture characterized by opportunity, cooperative effort, social initiative, creativity, and invention. Drawing on the major works of modern Papal thought, Novak demonstrates how the Catholic tradition has come to reflect this richer interpretation of capitalist culture. In 1891, Pope Leo XIII condemned socialism as a futile system, but also severely criticized existing market systems. In 1991, John Paul II surprised many by conditionally proposing "a business economy, a market economy, or simply free economy" as a model for Eastern Europe and the Third World. Novak notes that as early as 1963, this future Pope had signaled his commitment to liberty. Later, as Archbishop of Krakow, he stressed the "creative subjectivity" of workers, made by God in His image as co-creators. Now, as Pope, he calls for economic institutions worthy of a creative people, and for political and cultural reformsattuned to a new "human ecology" of family and work. Novak offers an original and penetrating conception of social justice, rescuing it as a personal virtue necessary for social activism. Since Pius XI made this idea canonical in 1931, the term has been rejected by the Right as an oxymoron and misused by the Left as a party platform. Novak applies this newly formulated notion of social justice to the urgent worldwide problems of ethnicity, race, and poverty. His fresh rethinking of the Catholic ethic comes just in time to challenge citizens in those two large and historically Catholic regions, Eastern Europe and Latin America, now taking their first steps as market economies, as well as those of us in the West seeking a realistic moral vision.

Author Biography

Michael and Jana Novak are the authors of Tell Me Why, a Simon & Schuster book.