Catholic Social Teaching on Building a Just Society: The Need for a Ceiling and a Floor
Msg. John A. Ryan was the leading voice for economic justice among American Catholics in the first half of the twentieth century. Although he was a champion of the proposal for a living wage to establish a minimum floor below which no worker might fall, Ryan gave little attention to whether there ou...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
MDPI
[2017]
|
In: |
Religions
Year: 2017, Volume: 8, Issue: 4, Pages: 1-11 |
Further subjects: | B
Catholic Social Teaching
B Communitarianism B economic inequality B Gaudium et Spes B John Ryan B Living Wage B relative equality |
Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
Summary: | Msg. John A. Ryan was the leading voice for economic justice among American Catholics in the first half of the twentieth century. Although he was a champion of the proposal for a living wage to establish a minimum floor below which no worker might fall, Ryan gave little attention to whether there ought to be a ceiling to limit wealth among concentrated elites. I believe Ryan's natural law methodology hindered a fuller vision of economic justice when addressing inequality. Contemporary Catholic social teaching, shaped by documents like Vatican II's Gaudium et spes, has formulated a communitarian approach to justice that deals more adequately with the dangers of vast economic disparities. The essay concludes with a few ideas regarding how the post-conciliar outlook assists in rectifying the growing trend of economic inequality within American society. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 2077-1444 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Religions
|
Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.3390/rel8040049 |