University of Edinburgh, Catholic Social Teaching talks 2015

This course is now completed. [31/01/16: I will in due course complete posting the handouts/slides from the course here.]

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Welcome to the resource page for my 2015 talks on Catholic Social Teaching!

Handouts and slides:

Session 1 (22 October):

Handout 1 here.

Slides here.


 a) The Compendium of Social Doctrine of the Church A one volume collection of the Church’s social teaching which attempts to present a systematic account based on extracts from authoritative teaching documents such as Papal Encyclicals. (Link here.)

In many ways, it can be seen as an attempt to provide an analogous manual in the field of social teaching to the Catechism.

b) Catechism of the Catholic Church.

An authoritative manual of Catholic theology. (Link here.)


c) Church teaching documents.

The most important Church documents relating to social teaching are gathered on this website. (Link here.)


d)  St Thomas Aquinas.

Aquinas’ works (in English and Latin) are available online from the website run by the Dominicans in Washington. (Link here.)

Links to key works for this course:

Summa Theologiae
Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics 
Commentary on Aristotle’s Politics
On Kingship

e) Jacques Maritain and Yves R. Simon 

Maritain and Simon both represent attempts from within the Thomist tradition to deal with the specific social and political problems of modernity.

Maritain: article in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (Link here.)

Simon: biographical address by son. (Link here.)

Relevant online works:

Jacques Maritain: The Person and the Common Good. (Link here.)

Yves R. Simon Philosophy of Democratic Government. (Link here.)

f) Personalism and Theology of the Body

Personalism is an approach, particularly associated with St John Paul II, and which emphasizes personal experience and respect for the individual. It can be seen as acknowledging the truth of individualism in modernity, whilst critiquing modernity's emphasis on individuals as atoms and its failure to acknowledge the importance of relationships between persons.

The Theology of the Body is the title given to a series of talks given by St John Paul II, and the subsequent development of their contents. In short, I think it can best be seen as an approach rooted in his personalism, but giving more explicit weight to the bodily aspects of being a person, in particular, the physical differences between women and men.

'John Paul II and the mystery of the human person' (article by Cardinal Avery Dulles). (Link here.)
Article in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: (Link here.)
Article in Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (Link here.)

Transcripts of the General Audiences on Theology of the Body: link here.
Analysis of Theology of the Body (by Father Richard M. Hogan): link here.