May 15, 2023
/We are pleased to bring you another edition of CATH-Links, an initiative born from the CC@S Synodal process and developed by the Education Team of the Intra Community Council (ICC). We hope this initiative will encourage reflection, engender discussion, and help members better understand and engage with the Church and the modern world.
If you are interested in submitting reflections, meditations, articles, book reviews, etc., see Submit Resources for Publication for submission guidelines and a link to a submission form. We look forward to your participation!
EASTER REFLECTION
In time for Pentecost
The Pentecost Film [youtube.com] This new film (14:27) premiered on April 18, 2023, and presents Michael Steven’s painting, “The Pentecost (after Maino)” which synthesizes stylistic influences from the baroque to the contemporary in depicting the awe-inspiring descent of the Holy Spirit.
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
The Christian Contribution to the Public Conversation [youtube.com] by Bishop Robert Barron. In his recent address to the British Parliament, Bishop Robert Barron, of Word on Fire, reflects on a central question: What has made Christianity so consistently a powerful social and cultural force through two millennia?
BOOK OF INTEREST
Aquinas on the Market: Toward a Humane Economy [amazon.com] by Mary Hirschfeld, a Harvard-trained economist turned Catholic theologian. Our May Lamplighters guest speaker, John Denniston, highly recommended this book to the community at the February retreat.
[more below]
BREAKING NEWS
Laypeople, including women, will vote in Synod on Synodality. [catholicnewsagency.com] The Vatican announced that there will be laypeople participating as voting members in the Synod on Synodality’s October assembly, a break with past custom, which allowed laypeople to participate without the right to vote. After the vote on a final document for the assembly, the Pope alone decides whether to take any actions based on the recommendations in the final text or whether to adopt it as an official Church document.
More on Aquinas on the Market: Toward a Humane Economy
“We are not lacking in Christian critiques of neoclassical economics. Rarely do these come from a Harvard-trained economist turned Catholic theologian. In order to diagnose just how the rational choice model frustrates, rather than facilitates, the pursuit of happiness, we must get clear on the nature of genuine human flourishing. In a book both acute and winsome, pragmatic and visionary, Hirschfeld turns to Thomas Aquinas for inspiration. Only with an adequate anthropology in hand can we understand both why economic analysis works as well as it does, and why it ultimately leads us astray. Freed from the pursuit of maximal utility, we can begin to build a humane economy. A wise and urgently-needed contribution”. Jennifer Herdt, Yale University.
Aquinas and the Market is a book every economist and every theologian engaging the economy should read and it might well be the topic for a conference where economists discuss the goals and methods of the discipline. While behavioral economics, neuroeconomics and the role of social institutions in economic life have begun to erode the methodological wall between positive and normative economics, discussions in the discipline related to the pursuit of life’s ultimate purpose have been rare. However, Hirschfeld, who is well versed in the language and concepts of economics, theology and philosophy, takes the reader on a journey that explores how economics and life’s ultimate purpose might interact to create a more humane economy.
A central theme of this book is that contemporary economic theory assumes people focus on the efficient acquisition of material goods without focusing on the ultimate purpose of life and how it is achieved. This pragmatic realism approach envisions humans operating with a narrow self-interest to maximize utility. Economic models based on this assumption are then expected to be the best predictors of behaviour in the economy, but any moral, ethical and theological perspectives are left for policy makers to apply if they choose to do so.
The book is very relevant in these times when confusion about ultimate goals in life seems to be pressing increasingly hard on our social order. Yet the tendency to minimize liberal arts and move toward a more pragmatic education draws us away from the kinds of interaction Hirschfeld recommends. This book may not be an easy read for the economist with limited theological and philosophical backgrounds, but many practical examples are used well to explain and illustrate how economics inspired by the theology of Thomas Aquinas can contribute to genuine human wellbeing.
An economist might suggest that perfectly competitive markets do point us toward the ultimate good because resources are allocated to their most desired use and competition eliminates excess profit. In this case, if there is a problem, it is because individuals have distorted preferences and income distribution may be unfair. The corrective agenda then involves a refocus of individual preferences and a public policy that creates a better distribution of income. The economic systems itself can still work if these adjustments can be made. Hirschfeld recognizes this but she does feel that a preference maximizing system has built-in biases against ultimate goodness. When these biases are recognized and our true purpose in life is understood, then economics, theology and philosophy can work together to form a system that will be humane, just and God-honoring. I enthusiastically recommend this book because it will help to move us toward that goal.
Jennifer Herdt, Yale University Sage Publications
Review edited by Nicholas Townsend, outgoing Book Reviews Editor
