Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of Capitalism

Adrian Pabst, Lecturer in Politics at the University of Kent has edited a book in response in Benedict XVI’s addition to the corpus of Catholic Social Teaching, Caritas in Veritate. 

The book is entitled The Crisis of Global Capitalism: Pope Benedict XVI’s Social Encyclical and the Future of Political Economy, and features essays from a number of eminent writers, including Adrian Pabst himself (a very astute observer in political affairs as evinced by some of his articles in The Guardian and The Drum), John Milbank, David L. Schindler, Australia’s own Tracey Rowland and the Zwicks of the Catholic Worker Movement in Texas.

The book has come with endorsements by the likes of Charles Taylor, as well as the Archbishop of Granada, Javier Martinez Fernandez, a long-time supporter and friend to the theological movement, Radical Orthodoxy. It promises to be a most informative read, and the Centre for Theology and Philosophy have provided the table of contents, which is reproduced below:

PART I: Christianity and Capitalism

1 A Real Third Way, John Milbank
2 A Tale of a Duck-Billed Platypus Called Benedict and His Gold and Red Crayons, Tracey Rowland

PART II: Christianity and Socialism

3 “We Communists of the Old School”, Eugene McCarraher
4 Beyond the Culture of Cutthroat Competition, Mark and Louise Zwick

PART III: Civil and Political Economy

5 Fraternity, Gift, and Reciprocity in Caritas in Veritate, Stefano Zamagni
6 The Paradoxical Nature of the Good, Adrian Pabst

PART IV: Caritas in Veritate and Traditions of Christian Social Teaching

7 The Anthropological Unity of Caritas in Veritate, David L. Schindler
8 Integralism and Gift Exchange in the Anglican Social Tradition, or Avoiding Niebuhr in Ecclesiastical Drag, John Hughes

PART V: Distributism and Alternative Economies

9 Common Life, Jon Cruddas MP and Jonathan Rutherford
10 Equity and Equilibrium, John Médaille