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"Moraen mdo rteh,re e lilgeiaoduoesftr hse
woralrdae d drepsrsoibnlogefp m osl ietciocnal
omyH.o wd itdh sihsih fatp pWehni?cd hi rec
tions shounlodw e xppilofonoretreeh res
future?
"FreedwoimtJ hu staincsew tehrests weo
questbiyio nnqs uiirnitCnoag t hosloicci al
thouagnhdt itnhset itouflt iiboenrsIa tlsi sm.
themsaibyse s imsptlaytA eldt:ho tuhCgeah t h
oliCch urdcuhr itnhngei netaeneden atrhl y
twentcieentthus reiitte saseg lafil nisbte ralism
asa ni deolihotag ssyl ,o cwolmyte os uppotrhte
morealf fiocfal ciyb eirnaslto intsMu.ot rie
cleairhtla ys, ctoosm uep pionrstt itouft ions
humrani gBhutitsht .a s altssoo u cpopmoer t in
stituotfdi eomnosc raancdmy a rket-oriented
econodmeivce lopment.
"Theirasep rofocuonnds on(aanlcteh ough
noitd entbiettywt)eh eCena thovliisocif o n
socjiuaslta inlcdie b eirnaslt iwthutiiciohnn, s
thpioso arn bdr okweonr lhda,vb ee ttthearn
othaelrlso twhehedu masnp itrofi lto u.r.i.s.h
AlthoIuf gohcu upso onn sep ecriefliicg ious
tradiatlwilho aonr c,eo ncewrinttehhdm e o ral
anrde liqguiaoluoisfht uym asny stsehmosu ld
fitnhdta rta dbiottiihon ns triunic ttsiaevnledf
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tuhails tories ....
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top rocfereodtm h gee netrota hlce o ncrete:
Firasd ti scuosfrs eiloinag niedoc no nomics;
theacn h apotnre era liibnso mtt hhl ei baenrda l
thCea thsoolciticra ald itthieaocn nh sa;po tne r
twcoo ncprreotbel ienamc so ntemploirbary
ersaolc iety ....
"IPna IrItIu, n derdteatkaewi olreokdnt he
maitne xotfbs o tCha tholitch osuoagcnhidta l
oft hlei betrraald aistr ieopnr esienJn othend ·
StuMair.lt.l . .
(contionnbu aecfdkl ap)
11172684
FREEDOM
WITH
JUSTICE
+
CathSoolciTicha olu agnhLdti beIrnaslt itutions
MICHAELN OVAK
oft hAem eriEcnatne rIpnrsitsiet ute
1817
Harper & Row, Publishers, San Francisco
Cambridge, Hagerstown, New York, Philadelphia,
London, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Singapore, Sydney
Permission, for which the author is grateful, has been granted to reprint excerpts from
the following works: The Economics of Heinrich Pesch by Richard E. Mulcahy, S.J. Copyright
© 1952 by Henry Holt & Co., renewed 1980. The Social Teachings of Wilhelm Emmanuel van
Ketteler, translated by Rupert]. Ederer. Copyright© 1981 by University Press of America.
The Gospel of Peace and justice, Introduction by Joseph Gremillion. Copyright © 1976 by
Orbis Press.
I am also grateful to the original publishers of earlier versions of chapters 1, 8, 1 o and
11: "Theologians and Economists: The Next Twenty Years," This World. Copyright ©
1984. "Creation Theology," Co-Creation and Capitalism, edited by John W. Houck and
Oliver F. Williarr,.s. Copyright© 1983 by University Press of America. "Liberation Theol
ogy in Practice," Thought. Copyright © 1984 by Fordham University Press. "Mediating
Institutions: The Communitarian Individual in America," The Public Interest. Copyright©
1982.
FREEDOM WITH JUSTICE. Copyright© 1984 by Michael Novak. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Harper & Row, Pub
lishers, Inc., 1 o East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022.P ublished simultaneously in Canada
by Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Limited, Toronto.
FIRST EDITION
Designer: Jim Mennick
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Novak, Michael.
FREEDOM WITH JUSTICE.
Includes index.
1. Sociology, Christian (Catholic) 2. Sociology, Christian (Catholic)-History of doc
trines-19th century. 3. Sociology, Christian (Catholic)-History of doctrines-20th
century. 4. Liberalism. I. Title.
BX1753.N67 1984 261 84-47731
ISBN 0-06-06631 7-0
84 85 86 87 88 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
For all who love, and wish to advance,
Catholic social thought
Contents
Acknowledgments
IX
Introduction
Xlll
Part I
CATHOLIC AND LIBERAL
1. Theology and Economics: The Next Twenty Years 3
1. Three "Habits of the Mind" 4
2. Defining the Terms 8
3· The Anti-Liberal Tradition in the Churches 12
2. Perfect Enemy of Good: Against Utopianism 16
1. Benedictines and Families 17
2. The Catholic Critique of Liberalism 19
3· The Failures of Liberalism 22
4. Social Justice 25
5. Political Economy 32
6. From Social Justice to Political Economy 35
3· An Awareness of Sin: The US Catholic Bishops and the
US Economy 39
1. Poverty and Welfare 41
2. The Creation of Employment 48
3. Temptations in the Desert 54
Part II
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL THOUGHT
(1848-1982)
4. The Architects of Catholic Social Thought
1. \Vilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler (1811-1877)
2. Heinrich Pesch (1854-1926) and Solidarism
5. A Quintessential Liberal: John Stuart Mill
1. The "Manchester Liberals"
Vlll / CONTENTS
2. Mill's Principles of Political Economy 87
3. Distribution and Other Issues 96
6. From Politics to Economics: Leo XIII and Pius XI 108
1. Rerum Novarum 108
2. Quadragesimo Anno 1 1 o
3. Solidarism and Corporatism 1 15
4. World War II 123
7. The Development of Nations: John XXIII and Paul VI 126
1. "The Priority of Individual Men" 127
2. At Last,The Bill of Rights 131
3. "The World is Sick": Paul VI 133
4. Eighty Years After 140
5. The Peace and Justice Establishment 144
8. Creation Theology: Pope John Paul II 149
1. Man as the Subject of Work 1 50
2. The Priority of Labor Over Capital 153
3. The Meaning of Capital 153
4. Ownership 155
5. Invention and Discovery 157
6. Creation Theology 158
Part III
ETHOS, VIRTUES, AND INSTITUTIONS:
THE FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF CATHOLIC SOCIAL
THOUGHT
9. Catholic Social Thought in the Future: Toward a
Theology of Commerce and Industry 167
1. The Political Economy of Development 167
2. The Spirit of Economic Progress 176
10. Liberation Theology in Practice 183
11. The Communitarian Individual in American Practice 95
1
1. Two Assumptions 196
2. Associative Community 97
1
3. Political Economy 99
1
4. The Role of Mediating Structures
201
12. International Economics 209
Not�s 219
Index 249
Acknowledgments
This book came into existence through many cooperators; I thank them
all.
Terry Hall was my research assistant during the early stages of
preparation; after January 1984, Scott Walter filled his place. Both per
formed heroically, Terry especially on Mill, Scott especially on Pesch
and Ketteler. During early 1984, Daryl Borgquist helped a great deal
with many details.
During the summer of 1983, as student interns, Warren Meyer and
Scott Walter began collecting materials for Part II. Also, interns Dennis
David, from the National Journalism Center, and David Seymour lent a
hand.
The following persons read sections of earlier drafts of this manu
script and made valuable suggestions: Charles Curran, Gertrude Him
melfarb, James Finn, Robert Spaeth, Edward A. Marciniak, Monsignor
John Tracy Ellis, Edward M. Littlejohn, Thomas Langan, Henry Briefs,
Jude Dougherty and, above all, Thomas M. Gannon, S.J., who carefully
read the whole manuscript and made many good suggestions. I am
especially indebted to Franz H. Mueller for many detailed, critical com
ments; because of him, the book is far better than it would have been,
even though not up to his measure.
A friend and editor, Neal Kozodoy, once again lent me his rich skills
in reducing the penultimate draft by many pages.
Through all this, Gayle Yiotis typed and re-typed, freely and cheer
fully proffering sensible advice.
And Clay Carlson and John Loudon of Harper & Row, as they have
so often, midwived these many efforts to publication.
The end, for democracy, is both justice and freedom.
-JACQUES MARITAIN Man and the State
... where political regimes do not allow to private individuals the
possession also of productive goods, the exercise of human liberty is
violated or completely destroyed . .. in the right of property, the exer
cise of liberty finds both a safeguard and a stimulus. ... This explains
the fact that socio-political groups and associations which endeavor to
reconcile freedom with justice within society, and which until recently did
not uphold the right of private property in productive goods, have now,
enlightened by the course of social events, modified their views and are
disposed actually to approve this right.
-POPE JOHN xxmM ater et Magistra
We have realized that the modern experiment, originally conceived only
as an experiment in freedom, had to become also an experiment in
justice. We know that the myopic individualism of modernity led it into
other errors, even into a false conception of the problem of the state in
terms of the unreal dichotomy, individualism vs. collectivism.
-JOHN COURTNEY MURRAY We Hold These Truths
Introduction
What does zt profit a man if he liberate the whole world, and suffer the loss of his
soul?
-A single word is changed in Matthew 16:26
More and more, the religious leaders of the world are addressing prob
lems of political economy. Their attention is focusing on this world.
How did this shift happen? Which directions should pioneers now
explore for the future?
This book answers these two questions by inquiring into Catholic so
cial thought and the institutions of liberalism. Its thesis may be simply
stated: Although the Catholic Church during the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries set itself against liberalism as an ideology, it has slowly
come to support the moral efficacy of liberal institutions. Most clearly, it
has come to support institutions of human rights. But it has also-more
slowly-come to support institutions of democracy and market-oriented
economic development.
There is a profound consonance (although not identity) between the
Catholic vision of social justice and the liberal institutions which, in this
poor and broken world, have better than others allowed the human
spirit to flourish. Catholic social thought, learning from experience, will
almost certainly continue in this direction.
Although I focus upon the Catholic social tradition, all who are con
cerned with the moral and religious quality of human systems should
find that tradition both instructive in itself and parallel to developments
in their own intellectual histories. Before we can establish common
ground, each of us needs to delve as deeply as we can into our own
intellectual roots. As Paul Tillich once observed, it is in the depths of
each religious tradition that we come closer together, in the Source of
all our lives, than on the thinner and more conventional surfaces.
My aim in Part I is to proceed from the general to the concrete: First
a discussion of religion and economics; then a chapter on realism in
both the liberal and the Catholic social traditions; then a chapter on two
concrete problems in a contemporary liberal society. The U.S. Catholic
bishops will address these two concrete problems, among others, in a
pastoral letter on the U.S. economy to be issued in 1985.
