At the heart of the letter

...Most of the claims that conservative and neoconservative critics are making about the significance of the current troubles of the welfare state are enormously exaggerated, and are not supported by anything like the argumentation and evidence adequate for them to have an enduring significance...

...A dynamism has been introduced into the conduct of economic activity in the West that has resulted in an enormous — and relatively steady — advance in the standard of living...

...We live better in a material sense today — far better — than our predecessors in the age of Aquinas because of the late medieval and early modern revolt against the common good tradition...

...The argument has never made much headway...

...That ultimately proved to be its undoing...

...The same criticism applies, although in a very different way, to the major competitor to liberalism...

...The basic, underlying issue in any such attempt to make theological sense of economics consonant with the distinctive theological claims of Christianity is to reconcile the competing claims of godly living and economic efficiency...

...The common good tradition developed, in its economic aspect at least, precisely to meet this demand, and it prevailed as long as it did because it was reasonably successful in this regard...

...The problem is the peculiar character of that argument in the context of our public life...

...Progress in method, however, does not automatically mean progress in the substance of the analysis and argument being advanced...

...But what are the merits of the argument the letter makes — understood on its own terms...

...As the text correctly observes, Catholic social thought has long held that one of government's prime tasks is "the coordination and regulation of diverse groups in society in a way that leads to the common good and the protection of basic rights...

...Much of the specific detail of the policy recommendations simply reiterates the social encyclicals and other Catholic pronouncements to adapt this tradition to the logic of the modern welfare state...

...The letter is hardly, therefore, the last word...

...They are on the right track, and one can only hope, as they go about responding to their critics in the next draft, that they will hold fast to what has been gained...

...But at what price...

...Few, however, feel themselves qualified to make such a judgment...

...There are different emphases among the many different Christian communions in this regard, but in principle Christian teaching has consistently been supportive of efforts to improve the material conditions under which we live...

...the justice of the American economy precisely when the administration is trying desperately to recover a sense of moral superiority for American institutions...

...But I trust that even these brief summary remarks convey a sense of what is involved in thinking in these terms...

...What better way to avoid the challenge of a serious argument than to trivialize the claims it makes as the product of the discovery that "God subscribes to the liberal agenda" (George F. Will...

...almost every citizen — all of this enhances human well-being in ways that are both profoundly important and beyond dispute...

...The latter effort the bishops have chosen to ignore, with good reason in my judgment...

...They deserve to be dismissed without extended comment...

...Not just government, but industry, the schools, the arts, the family, etc., should all be structured and maintained so as to enable people to live together in such a way that they promote the full well-being of one another...

...In part they have to do with objective political and economic problems which the welfare state has encountered in one country after another...

...The final critical observation I want to raise concerns the role which is assigned to the state in the ordering of economic life...

...The common good, unmistakably, is to be thought of as a good which must be deliberately sought, and the implication is that in the absence of such a conscious pursuit, it will not in fact be achieved — or at least not be achieved very well...

...With very few exceptions, those who have chosen to comment on the bishops' first draft have failed to come to grips with the central substance of the argument the bishops seek to make...

...WHY DO I say narrowly focused...

...They are real, and they are likely to endure...

...In several respects I find specific details of their argument unpersuasive: • One of the more important characteristics of this letter, considered against the background of previous Catholic social teaching, is, as I mentioned, its reliance on Scripture...

...In so far as the letter embraces particular economic analyses, it must also be evaluated on those terms, to be sure...

...It should probably be given even more emphasis...

...The present letter, fully in keeping with its tradition, assigns a considerable — though by no means allencompassing — role to civil authorities in achieving the ends it prescribes...

...Any philosophically coherent concept of distributive justice recognizes this many-sided character of the problem, and the need to take these aspects into account in an integrated way...

...The goal of reduced consumption is altogether appropriate here even more, perhaps, for theological than ethical reasons...

...It does not in fact balance the twin concerns of spiritual and moral well-being, on the one hand, and of material prosperity on the other...

...Third, the letter insists, again in traditional fashion, that the common good should be consciously willed and pursued in the design of social institutions and public policy...

...It is precisely what its early apologists said it was: a defiant assertion of the primacy of this-worldly, materialistic concerns over the more complex — and balanced — view of the common good tradition...

...Does it articulate a theology of economic life that is what the church should be expected to say in this particular phase of American history...

...It is for this reason that Catholic social thought has had greater philosophical plausibility than Protestant, with the difference varying in direct proportion to the extent to which Protestant bibliolatry prevailed...

...Second, the proper way for human beings to relate to one another is in community — as self-conscious collaborators in enterprises which they know to be of mutual interest and concern...

...It represents, I would submit, an updating of the traditional Catholic common good teaching, one relying more directly on Scripture than Catholic social thought generally has in the past...

...Furthermore, it has a well-established tendency to make the pursuit of economic goods the be-all and end-all of existence...

...Regardless of what one believes about the conservative interpretation of these problems, they are not at all simply figments of the conservative mind...

...Certainly the fate of the "disadvantaged" is a very important part of the general question of who deserves to get what...

...We are to think of the economic means at our disposal as common resources with which we have been entrusted in order to seek the good of the whole community...

...The real source of these claims is just what the citations in the text suggest — recent scriptural studies, which have gone a long way to establish a solid foundation for this part of the letter's theological claims...

...It calls, in turn, for a theological response...

...The prejudice is widespread, moreover, that claims made in a theological vein are just' 'packaging'' for conclusions derived from other sources...

...But at the same time it insists on the necessity of viewing the property with which individuals (and other private economic actors) find themselves entrusted as just that, a trust, given to them to serve the common good and not just private interest...

...It has the appearance of suggesting we can somehow have our cake and eat it too...

...They too, are inclined to treat economic productivity and related matters as the heart of the human good, and to treat many of the moral and spiritual issues of concern to Catholics with either contempt or indifference...

...Why this resistance to adopting a new position...

...and scholarly analysis is increasingly beginning to capture some of what the Commonweal: 362 difference is...

...Now, as Catholic teaching begins to incorporate themes derived from Scripture in a more direct and complete manner, the danger is that it will be afflicted with the very same tendency to sacrifice philosophical coherence for scriptural dogmatism...

...Even though the letter addresses issues which are the staples of public life in a modern society, it does so in a quite distinctive way...

...The great strength of Catholic social teaching in the past, which has always been the compensation for its tendency to give short shrift to Scripture, has been the stress on philosopical coherence...

...In making this judgment, I presuppose a particular way of interpreting the character of the draft's argument...

...The electorate senses it, so do politicians...

...Catholic thought is actually beginning to take on the character of the synthesis of reason and revelation that it has always claimed to be...

...For with the stirring of "economic man" in the later Middle Ages, and with the increasing awareness of the possibility of steady multiplication of capital which was provided by the instrument of the free market, the way of thinking embodied in the common good tradition was increasingly perceived as restrictive and even reactionary...

...In one way or another, all of the modern alternatives to the common good tradition entail claims that are theologically and philosophically unacceptable...

...This attempt to give Scripture a larger role leads to some of my reservations...

...My answer is yes, but to explain why, I need to comment briefly on the challenge confronting anyone undertaking the project the letter entails...

...21 June 1985: 359 The clear implication is that economic activity must be put in its place...

...Given this provocation, it was probably inevitable that the press would reduce the whole argument to an attack on Reaganomics...

...The draft sharply challenges R. bruce DOUGLASS teaches political theory and chairs the department of government at Georgetown University...

...Liberalism, for example, does indeed provide a dynamism in the economic sphere that is extraordinary, especially if certain social conditions can be assumed, and it is conducive to liberty in a manner that has few parallels...

...This implies, in turn, a major role for government...

...Predictably, the strategy employed by most commentators has been to ignore the theological part of the argument, and to focus almost exclusively on the policy recommendations...

...To date, it has not been particularly edifying...

...But already they have accomplished a great deal — far more, certainly, than most of their critics have acknowledged...

...Much work remains to be done, and some difficult issues have to be resolved if the bishops are truly to meet the challenge which they have posed for themselves...

...Those who are at all familiar with recent trends in Catholic theology will recognize immediately that this is not accidental...

...The tradition of thought which they have chosen as the basis of their argument is probably better equipped to respond to these new realities than most of the alternatives...

...The question for most of the history of Christian thought has been how to do justice simultaneously to both of these concerns...

...This is not merely a matter of form...

...Those who dispose of the means of production on behalf of the community, says the letter, striking a very biblical theme, are to view themselves as stewards of the earth, responsible to God and the community alike for its proper use...

...Comfortable as the way of life to which we are now accustomed may be in certain respects, there is, nonetheless, much in it that is not in the least theologically defensible, and any Christian theology of economics worth the name should make us sensitive to this in just the manner the bishops attempt to do...

...Economic efficiency has a certain theological dignity in Christian thought, but so, too, does living one's life in accord with the demands of piety and virtue {however defined...

...The present document is clearly meant to do this, but in my judgment, it does not really come to terms with the full seriousness and complexity of the problem...

...The point is rather that the particular way in which they are defined and pursued in modern societies — capitalist and socialist alike — tends to be subversive of those qualities of mind and heart that we normally have in mind when we think of what human existence is supposed to be, theologically understood...

...The document recognizes this tension but it never wrestles with the more fundamental issue it raises...

...Critics have alleged that what this actually reflects is the influence of modern philosophy and/or political ideology, such as the "difference principle" articulated in John Rawls's A Theory of Justice...

...On the contrary, it affirms, in a very traditional manner, the utility and even virtue of private property...

...It is important to human welfare, to be sure, as the letter clearly acknowledges, but it is not ultimately important...

...But this is not at all developed, and the result is to leave unexplored one of the most important challenges of the document...

...it affects the substance of the argument as well...

...But the principle is not confined to government...

...But once that impression was created, it was promptly seized on by practically every conservative critic as a means of dismissing the letter...

...The letter has tended to be treated, therefore, as though it were just another policy pronouncement by the AFL-CIO or the Democratic National Committee...

...This is not to say that economic activity, well-being, or growth are per se undesirable...

...Subsequent history has shown this claim to be very well founded...

...While socialism meets directly some of the concerns raised in the Catholic critique of liberalism, socialists ultimately tend to share with liberals the characteristic "economism" of the modern world...

...The reasons for this new debate about the role of the state are multiple and complex...

...Just to have raised the issue of the uneasy fit between Christian faith and the current American economy as clearly and forcefully as they have done is itself a signal achievement...

...The problem is not the insistence on justice as the standard by which social — and especially economic — institutions are to be judged...

...We are, for the most part, a theologically illiterate society, and most of our pundits lack even a rudimentary acquaintance with the logic of theological argument...

...Regardless of what one finally concludes about the merits of the draft, and solely on grounds of the importance of the general issue it raises, it deserves better treatment...

...There is also a crisis of delivery of sorts, such that practitioners and analysts of social policy are much less confident now than they were a few decades ago that the intentions which typically lie behind governmental efforts to produce certain social results can, in fact, be fulfilled...

...But the desirability of the sort of role which the letter proposes for government is increasingly disputed...

...The document stops short of carrying this idea to the point of advocating collective ownership of the means of production...

...It needs a theory of the state which reflects the realities of the 1970s and '80s rather than those of the 1930s and '40s...

...The hallmark of this era will be the requirement that every proposal which entails a significant role for the state be accompanied by careful, self-critical analysis of its feasibility in relation to fiscal policy, on the one hand, and the actual delivery capabilities of public agencies, on the other...

...Unlike some of the other great world religions, Christianity, as an extension of Judaism, affirms the goodness of human efforts to take control of the earth for human well-being...

...I think they are wrong...

...It unleashed a competitive spirit that can easily militate against both social justice and community...

...But its modern critics would say, justifiably, that ultimately it still tends to sacrifice economic efficiency for religious concerns...

...My hunch is that lurking in the background of this letter is indeed a sense of an economy of the future which would be very different from what we know today in the industrially advanced societies...

...What the bishops propose is that justice above all is the biblical goal in ordering economic relations, and that this is intended in a very specific sense — care for the well-being of the least advantaged...

...and the discussion has proceeded as though the only relevant standard of evaluation were the adequacy of the policy proposals the letter makes considered in economic terms...

...But they also have to do with the effort of certain ideologues to impose a particular interpretation on these problems, one which will have the effect of discrediting the whole enterprise that the welfare state represents...

...To what degree is social mobility a part of social justice...

...In this setting, the bishops can ill afford appearing as well-meaning dogmatists who just cannot bring themselves to give up outworn formulas...

...But how can the required revisions be made without creating a new imbalance of the opposite sort...

...But equally important are considerations like: Who should pay, and in what proportions, for benefits to the least advantaged...

...It meets what has long been probably the most important theological criticism of Catholic social teaching by Protestants, and in the process it adds a vitally important dimension to Catholic theology that previously tended to be missing...

...Whatever the motives inspiring such dismissal by innuendo, however, it needs to be stoutly resisted...

...We are now entering a new era in the discussion of the role of the state...

...No amount of celebration of the value of freedom will gainsay this fact...

...The question, then, is whether those responsible for drafting the letter have chosen wisely in continuing to uphold, albeit in an adapted form, this essentially traditional way of thinking...

...Partisan politics has played a definite role, too, in the reception the letter has received...

...It seeks, specifically, to articulate a theological perspective on economics — i.e., to make sense of the meaning and purpose of economic activity in the light of the church's most basic teaching...

...MORE - MUCH MORE — could be said...

...Three are of particular importance: First, economic activity is to be understood as a means to serve higher purposes and not as an end in itself...

...The fact that people in the industrialized world have access today to the sort of medical Commonweal: 360 care that they do, or that food is available in plentiful and steady supply, or that we can afford to educate (for years at a time...

...I have already discussed the competing demands of piety and virtue, on the one hand, and economic efficiency, on the other...

...There is not a hint here of confidence in an Invisible Hand to effect the realization of the common good out of individuals' seeking their own interest, independent of the wider good of the community...

...Indeed, one can imagine such a society being judged unjust because of the way the resulting costs were imposed on the rest of the population...

...The problem lies with the notion that justice means, tout court, a concern for the well-being of the least advantaged...

...While there is very good biblical warrant for making this claim, I do question whether it can suffice as the sum and substance of the definition of justice in a document meant to encompass the totality of economic life in a society...

...What specific claims reflect the common good tradition...

...A definition which is so narrowly focused on only one aspect 21 June 1985: 361 of the problem is for this purpose inappropriate...

...There is, nonetheless, a fiscal crisis of the welfare state, which is why issues of political economy are attracting so much attention these days...

...Especially does this arise with respect to economic liberalism, the primary — though by no means the sole — source of the new dynamism which entered the world in the seventeenth century...

...And so on...

...But it can hardly be reconciled with an ambitious set of employment goals — unless, of course, one is thinking of a fundamentally different sort of economy...

...Economic liberalism fails, therefore, the crucial test...

...The letter badly needs an infusion of sophistication about the complexities of social policy today...

...Economic institutions are not to be evaluated solely in terms of economists' prime consideration, that is, productive efficiency, but also by the contribution which they do (or do not) make to the well-rounded development of the human person...

...If only, said the early apologists for capitalism, we could be free of the restraints on economic activity imposed by church and state in the name of the common good, a new dynamism could be introduced into our economic life that will enhance in unparalleled ways the material benefits available to us...

...Much of what this entails must be considered progress by any reasonable standard...

...A well-ordered society is one in which economic considerations are not in fact the be-all and the end-all of human existence...

...How much equality, and of what sort, is desired in the distribution of benefits among those who are not the least advantaged...

...Instead, the predominant tendency, expressed above all in the social encyclicals, has been to adapt the common good tradition to the new conditions presented by the modern world...

...To the extent that some biblical passages suggest otherwise, they are simply misleading...

...It treats the goods and services which human beings acquire through their labor to improve their lot as part of God's providence...

...There is no good reason, in any case, why they need do so...

...On this point in particular, Scripture needs what Catholic teaching has usually required — namely, philosophical refinement if not correction...

...On the other hand, it has also long been a part of Christian thought to recognize that the true fulfillment of human beings lies beyond material well-being...

...The foundation, therefore, on which the bishops' letter rests is a solid one...

...The question, in turn, which naturally has arisen as the church has sought to adapt itself to the modern world, is whether it should abandon the common good tradition in favor of some modern "progressive" alternative...

...It was not, however, geared to economic growth...

...The letter reflects little awareness of these new realities, which is one of the main reasons why it has been so easy to dismiss...

...We are living in a new time...

...The very fact that the tradition is not altogether consonant with the ideas and practices currently in vogue is what makes it so valuable...

...It derives from developments in the post-Vatican II era that are having a profound effect across virtually the whole range of the theological agenda...

...To agree with their foundation is not, however, to agree with every particular inference which the bishops draw...

...But what is scriptural may not necessarily be satisfactory for the purposes of moral and political philosophy...

...Nonetheless, the innovations by no means override the primacy of the traditional themes, which provide the essential core of the theological claims the letter seeks to make...

...As a Protestant, I can only applaud in principle what this represents...

...The answer I propose is in principle affirmative, but with certain qualifications...

...The authors are reluctant to acknowledge what may in fact be an unavoidable dilemma — that the prosperity to which we are now accustomed in the industrialized world (and the growth that is part of our expectations) may simply be incompatible with the notions of human fulfillment and virtuous living that are commonly assumed in Catholic moral philosophy and theology...

...But fundamentally it is a theological statement, and needs to be judged accordingly...

...The strength of the common good tradition is that it represents a serious effort to balance both...

...Beyond this, they have gone a long way towards establishing that there is such a thing as a coherent contemporary Christian understanding of the meaning and purpose of economic life as well...

...Where economic efficiency conflicts with the pursuit of other "higher" goods, efficiency can and should be compromised...

...The common good tradition can be successfully adapted, I am convinced, to the conditions we now face, without at the same time simply adopting wholesale the characteristic biases (and illusions) of modernity...

...One can well imagine a society that devoted itself very seriously to the task of providing for the welfare of its least advantaged and yet fell short of justice in a more complete sense because of the way it dealt with these other issues...