Catholic Social Teaching

Drawing upon a lively debate within the field of social theory, Mary E. Hobgood argues that the paradigm conflict between orthodox neoclassical and radical economic models is reflected in Catholic documents that address economic justice. She maintains that dynamics within Catholic teaching are explicable only in terms of this clash of fundamentally opposing perspectives. This study shows how normative values of social justice are always tied to a particular social theory or model of society. When assumptions shift from one model to another, the concrete actions mandated by these justice norms change significantly. Consequently, the Catholic social justice tradition contains not only two mutually exclusive analyses of capitalist dynamics, it also has very different interpretations of such norms as economic democracy and a preferential notion for the poor. Hobgood argues that the Church needs to clarify the economic models that inform its social justice mandates and to assess those models for their compatibility with the Church's moral concerns, otherwise, Catholic social teaching's interpretations of justice and how Christians must act for it remain inconsistent. Mary E. Hobgood is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Maine, Orono.