A Critique of Usury

“The natural rate theory demands faith in an unseen entity: the natural rate of interest. Its proponents ... assure that if economists have enough faith in this entity ..., we will be the recipients of economic grace. It is an eminently Protestant theory.”

Awesome. https://t.co/Ri64FcJw7x

— Robert Morgan (@partylike1399) June 8, 2021

John Paul II

Look at this man's face and tell me he thinks capitalism is great, I dare you. https://t.co/dNuohYDedR

— Marc John Paul Louis de Montfort Barnes! (@BadCatholicBlog) October 22, 2020

John Paul II Exhibition in Rome Promotes Beauty as a Source of Hope and Life | National Catholic Register — today is the feast day of St. John Paul II https://t.co/vuK54S8so9 @Solena_Tad

— Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) October 22, 2020

The Decline of Holland

A problem of too much material success and wealth?

Sandro Magister: End of Christianity? A Cardinal Analyzes the Case of Holland

Max Weber

In the centenary of Max Weber’s death, we focus on 2 of Weber’s themes that have had a considerable influence on the study of the sociology of religion: the disenchantment of the world; and, Protestant ethics as the driving force behind capitalism https://t.co/Q7WKRf6qJa

— La Civiltà Cattolica (@civcatt) September 3, 2020

Eugene McCarraher, "You're a Slave to Money, Then You Die"

text version

Charles Taylor on Solidarity and Fairness

Church Life Journal

This is how the source of the deep cracks in modern capitalist societies presents itself. There are two contexts that justify our deeds; we can define them as the “democratic” and the “capitalist.” To be honest, we cannot reject either one. We cannot reject the democratic context, because it has become a central, inseparable element of our vision of legitimacy. We also cannot reject the capitalist context, because we have long ago passed the stage where we would be satisfied with a stagnant economy. Thus, we have to come to terms with them both. The first context is a great source of solidarity. When we manage to awaken and activate the feeling of our common citizenship we are capable of acting in often surprising ways by authentically devoting ourselves to others or in the name of the common good. This is especially apparent during times of war or during movements of national liberation—in a certain sense the Polish Solidarity movement was an important instance of such a movement. The second context demands that we put solidarity to the side and agree to bend or even break the rules of reciprocity in the name of effectiveness, which, it is apparent, we cannot renounce.

These are the two contradictory principles -both are illusionary and the illusions of "democracy" and "greater wealth" are used by the oligarchy to provide a cover of legitimacy. Does Taylor realize this, or has he drunk the Kool-aid as well? Being subject to the same state is insufficient to create "solidarity" and Taylor fails to recognize "civic nationalism" cannot overcome substantial differences in group identity or culture. Comparing Canada (or the U.S.) to a rather homogeneous ethnic state like Poland is comparing apples and oranges.

Solidarity is a solution but Taylor has no adequate means to promoting it because he doesn't acknowledge real divisions. Moreover, the state itself is opposed to solidarity and will not permit any true solidarity (as opposed to companionship in subjugation) to exist because solidarity is a threat to its power and existence.

An Interview with Stephen Bullivant

CWR: Why have Catholics in the UK and US been leaving the Church since Vatican II? by Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille

Theologian and sociologist Stephen Bullivant says a big part of his argument in Mass Exodus is “that the ‘social architecture’ that had sustained and strengthened Catholic life and identity was well on the road to passing away by the time the Council came along.”

A New Generation of Theocons

Public Discourse: Integrating Catholic Social Teaching With Economics and Natural Science by Jay Richards

Beyond Liberalism: Patrick Deneen and Bill Kauffman

MoJ: What's Missing in the New CDF Document: Critique of corrupting, inequality-increasing monopolies

Common Good Conference at UST MN

Homo economicus is actually Homo servus

The illusion of economic freedom is just that.

Economic productivity has been extracted by powers outside the home, leaving little economic freedom that is rooted in a domestic economy. And now, even women have been taken out of the home so they can be turned into consuming/producing units in service of those holding economic power.

Without cheap energy to sustain the system and the consolidation of economic and political power by the few, feminism would not be possible.

William Cavanaugh, "What Do I Want? Augustine and Milton Friedman on Freedom of Choice"

William T. Cavanaugh at Wheaton

From a few years ago...

The Weakness of the Domestic Church in the West

Fr. Z: Sam Gregg of ACTON on medieval distinctions about usury and legitimate forms of money-lending

Can we define what we mean by modernity, please?

Irony of Ironies: Vatican II Triumphs Over Moribund Modernity by Samuel Gregg

You don't need to reach the bottom of the essay to guess that the author is associated with the Acton Institute. Defenders of the liberal [dis-]order are apt to credit liberalism or capitalism with the development of new technology, the increase in longevity and decrease in morality, and so on, as if these developments could only happen because of the concentration of capital in the hands of the few.

More from Miller on MacIntyre

He writes in response to David Schaengold's Defending Alasdair MacIntyre’s Economics: On Aristotle’s Wide Applicability.

(The link to the First Things piece that started this discussion can be found here.)

First Things: Waiting for St. Vladimir
An admirer of Alasdair MacIntyre’s moral philosophy rejects his political economy
by Robert T. Miller

Mr. Miller's treatment of MacIntyre and capitalism merits a response, but there are so many things that need to be countered and clarified that I do not think I have time. First Things has not changed its basic economic beliefs, even though it may have a new editor?
MacIntyre on money