Social Justice Isn't What you Think It Is (Book review)

Michale Novak, Elizabeth Shaw and Paul Adams' new book looks interesting:

The book Social Justice Isn’t What You Think It Is isn’t what you think it is. The dust jacket of the latest from Michael Novak (with coauthors Paul Adams and Elizabeth Shaw) promises to rescue the term from “its ideological captors” by clarifying “the true meaning of social justice.” What it provides is a careful reading of select papal encyclicals, and application of them to the concept of social justice and contemporary social work—especially that being done from a Roman Catholic perspective. The book’s aim, in practical terms, is to make social justice safe for conservative Catholics both in theory and in practice. Novak humorously notes that this anti-market rallying cry of the Left has an “operational meaning”: that “we need a law against that.” One response to such social justice boosterism—Friedrich Hayek’s, in fact—is to reject the phrase altogether. Novak summarizes Hayek’s critique succinctly: Either social justice is a virtue, and so is about individuals and not about redistribution; or it is not a virtue and “its claim to moral standing falls flat.” Because its advocates treat it “as a regulative principle of order, not a virtue,” the slogan serves as an instrument of coercion, not a call to good habits of character, so the Hayekian conservative should set it aside.

From Library of Law and Liberty here (review by James Bruce)

I haven't read the book so can't do more than point it out as a potentially interesting read. But the review does suggest a few points:

a) Catholic social teaching mustn't be taken as a simplistic rule book. Justice and concern for res publica requires the application and development of the virtue of prudentia (practical wisdom). There are themes and basic observations about human nature, but how these are to be applied in concrete historical and cultural circumstances is a matter for that virtue of prudentia.

b) One of the biggest issues in modern Western societies (and particularly in the United States) is the role of government in achieving justice. In particular, there is a tendency in some countries to allow the state to destroy the associations of civil society and the family. On the other hand, in other countries, there is a failure of the state to support such associations. Catholic social teaching is clear that the family and the associations of civil society cannot rightly be replaced by government action. Equally, the state is more than a nightwatchman state the purpose of which is simply to protect basic physical welfare: it is there to promote human flourishing. Between these extremes, there is a range of possibilities which might be required in particular circumstances.

c) Politics essentially involves debate and disagreement. That some positions are clearly excluded by Catholicism does not imply that we should expect all Catholics to agree on what remains. (We might, however, expect Catholics to conduct that debate virtuously.)

One message I'd like this blog to reinforce is that Catholic social teaching is not some simplistic package which can be reduced to chucking a few more pennies in the SCIAF tin (laudable though such efforts are!). It is essentially an application of theology and philosophy to the hugely complex area of the social nature of human beings. It requires hard thinking and engagement with the fullness of the Catholic intellectual tradition.


Related post here.

Catholic Education Week 2016

The pastoral letter from Archbishop Tartaglia (PDF here and reproduced below) deserves careful study both as a straightforward exhortation for more young people to think of becoming teachers and also as reflecting a number of principles in Catholic social teaching.

 

Appeal for Catholic Teachers

At this time last year I appealed to young people to come forward to become teachers. Again this year I ask young people to give serious consideration to my appeal. I also urge parents, grandparents and teachers to encourage young people to pursue Teaching as a vital career choice.

Given the current shortages of teachers and Head Teachers, I also want to appeal to Catholic teachers who are not currently working in Catholic schools. My request is this: please seek an appointment in a Catholic school; ask your Council employer for a transfer to a Catholic school. We urgently need committed Catholic teachers to be working in Catholic schools.

The Bishops and our advisers have appealed to Scottish Government Ministers to ensure that sufficient teachers are being trained to work in Catholic schools. We are working hard with the University of Glasgow and others to improve the supply of teachers who will be able to contribute to the provision of Catholic education for our children and young people.

I must stress that this is a critical issue which may have significant consequences if we cannot produce more teachers soon.


Yours devotedly in Christ,

 Philip Tartaglia,

Archbishop of Glasgow
President of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland

1) The letter reflects the multi-layered aspect of Catholic understandings of society. Instead of concentrating on the State as agent, the letter assumes the existence of several sources of authority (eg: the family, the school, the university, the Church, the State, the individual) all of whom have to work together to promote human flourishing. (The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church referred to below as the Compendium can be found here.)

Political authority must guarantee an ordered and upright community life without usurping the free activity of individuals and groups but disciplining and orienting this freedom, by respecting and defending the independence of the individual and social subjects, for the attainment of the common good. Political authority is an instrument of coordination and direction by means of which the many individuals and intermediate bodies must move towards an order in which relationships, institutions and procedures are put at the service of integral human growth.

[Compendium, 394]

2) The centrality of education of the next generation to social action. Teaching is not just one more job. The teaching of the next generation (both within and outwith schools) is one of the central tasks of human flourishing.

The commitment to the education and formation of the person has always represented the first concern of Christian social action.

[Compendium, 557.]
That connection between the generations largely formed by teaching is again one of the central aspects of the good life:

Procreation expresses the social subjectivity of the family and sets in motion a dynamism of love and solidarity between the generations upon which society is founded.

[Compendium, paragraph 230]

There's a lot more to be said here, but I take the centrality of education and schools to be an increasingly countercultural aspect of Catholicism in a society where children are often seen as just one more life choice for which individuals alone are responsible.

3) Schools as communities and as a cause of communities. Schools of course form a community within civil society for teachers and pupils. But beyond this, they form further communities around them (sports clubs, fund raising activities, friendships etc). As such, they are a key driver of the little platoons which form such an important part of the Catholic understanding of human beings and society.

Civil society is the sum of relationships and resources, cultural and associative, that are relatively independent from the political sphere and the economic sector. “The purpose of civil society is universal, since it concerns the common good, to which each and every citizen has a right in due proportion”. This is marked by a planning capacity that aims at fostering a freer and more just social life, in which the various groups of citizens can form associations, working to develop and express their preferences, in order to meet their fundamental needs and defend their legitimate interests.

[Compendium 417]

Those interested in pursuing a career in Catholic education in Scottish schools can find further information here.



 

 

Robert Burns and Catholic social teaching

 

 

I'm not quite sure whether it's right to wish people a happy Burns' Day rather than a happy Burns' Night. But in any case, Robert Burns was born on 25 January 1759. I'm not going to pretend that Burns was either a Catholic or even a convinced Presbyterian, but neither is he the straightforward opponent of religion that modern secularists might claim:

 

`What a transient business is life! Very lately I was a boy; but t'other day I was a young man; and I already begin to feel the rigid fibre and stiffening joints of Old Age coming fast o'er my frame. With all my follies of youth, and I fear, a few vices of manhood, still I congratulate myself on having had in early days religion strongly impressed on my mind. I have nothing to say to any body, as, to which Sect they belong, or what Creed they believe; but I look on the Man who is firmly persuaded of Infinite Wisdom and Goodness superintending and directing every circumstance that can happen in his lot - I felicitate such a man as having a solid foundation for his mental enjoyment; a firm prop and sure stay, in the hour of difficulty, trouble and distress: and a never-failing anchor of hope, when he looks beyond the grave.'

 

[From here.]

 

That said, Burns' poetry does reveal broad themes that connect with Catholic social teaching. Let's take 'A man's a man for a' that' as an example.

 

Is there for honest Poverty

That hings his head, an' a' that;

The coward slave-we pass him by,

We dare be poor for a' that!

For a' that, an' a' that.

Our toils obscure an' a' that,

The rank is but the guinea's stamp,

The Man's the gowd for a' that.

What though on hamely fare we dine,

Wear hodden grey, an' a that;

Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine;

A Man's a Man for a' that:

For a' that, and a' that,

Their tinsel show, an' a' that;

The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor,

Is king o' men for a' that.

Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord,

Wha struts, an' stares, an' a' that;

Tho' hundreds worship at his word,

He's but a coof for a' that:

For a' that, an' a' that,

His ribband, star, an' a' that:

The man o' independent mind

He looks an' laughs at a' that.

A prince can mak a belted knight,

A marquis, duke, an' a' that;

But an honest man's abon his might,

Gude faith, he maunna fa' that!

For a' that, an' a' that,

Their dignities an' a' that;

The pith o' sense, an' pride o' worth,

Are higher rank than a' that.

Then let us pray that come it may,

(As come it will for a' that,)

That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,

Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.

For a' that, an' a' that,

It's coming yet for a' that,

That Man to Man, the world o'er,

Shall brothers be for a' that.

I won't try to give a full Catholic reading of the complexities here, but let's take four key themes from the song and connect them to the Church's teaching on the subject from the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. (Online here. Initial numbers below refer to the section numbers of the Compendium.)


1) Liberty:

135. Man can turn to good only in freedom, which God has given to him as one of the highest signs of his image: “For God has willed that man remain ‘under the control of his own decisions' (Sir 15:14), so that he can seek his Creator spontaneously, and come freely to utter and blissful perfection through loyalty to Him. Hence man's dignity demands that he act according to a knowing and free choice that is personally motivated and prompted from within, neither under blind internal impulse nor by mere external pressure”. Man rightly appreciates freedom and strives for it passionately: rightly does he desire and must form and guide, by his own free initiative, his personal and social life, accepting personal responsibility for it. In fact, freedom not only allows man suitably to modify the state of things outside of himself, but it also determines the growth of his being as a person through choices consistent with the true good. In this way man generates himself, he is father of his own being, he constructs the social order. 2) Solidarity: 192. Solidarity highlights in a particular way the intrinsic social nature of the human person, the equality of all in dignity and rights and the common path of individuals and peoples towards an ever more committed unity. Never before has there been such a widespread awareness of the bond of interdependence between individuals and peoples, which is found at every level. The very rapid expansion in ways and means of communication “in real time”, such as those offered by information technology, the extraordinary advances in computer technology, the increased volume of commerce and information exchange all bear witness to the fact that, for the first time since the beginning of human history, it is now possible — at least technically — to establish relationships between people who are separated by great distances and are unknown to each other. 3) Equality: 144. “God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34; cf. Rom 2:11; Gal 2:6; Eph 6:9), since all people have the same dignity as creatures made in his image and likeness. The Incarnation of the Son of God shows the equality of all people with regard to dignity: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28; cf. Rom 10:12; 1 Cor 12:13, Col 3:11). Since something of the glory of God shines on the face of every person, the dignity of every person before God is the basis of the dignity of man before other men. Moreover, this is the ultimate foundation of the radical equality and brotherhood among all people, regardless of their race, nation, sex, origin, culture, or class.   4) Honest poverty:   324. Those who recognize their own poverty before God, regardless of their situation in life, receive particular attention from him: when the poor man seeks, the Lord answers; when he cries out, the Lord listens. The divine promises are addressed to the poor: they will be heirs to the Covenant between God and his people. God's saving intervention will come about through a new David (cf. Ezek 34:22-31), who like King David — only more so — will be defender of the poor and promoter of justice; he will establish a new covenant and will write a new law in the hearts of believers (cf. Jer 31:31-34). When sought or accepted with a religious attitude, poverty opens one to recognizing and accepting the order of creation. In this perspective, the “rich man” is the one who places his trust in his possessions rather than in God, he is the man who makes himself strong by the works of his own hands and trusts only in his own strength. Poverty takes on the status of a moral value when it becomes an attitude of humble availability and openness to God, of trust in him. This attitude makes it possible for people to recognize the relativity of economic goods and to treat them as divine gifts to be administered and shared, because God is the first owner of all goods.     Given the usual nature of Burns' suppers, one should perhaps also add (mutatis mutandis*) Belloc's words:

“Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine,
There’s always laughter and good red wine.
At least I’ve always found it so.
Benedicamus Domino!”

 

 

[Details of image here.]

 

 

*In this case a phrase doubtless to be translated into Scots as 'leaving out the sun and substituting whisky for wine'.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and a happy 2016!

 





[Details of painting: here.]



Catholic Social Teaching University of Edinburgh Catholic Chaplaincy

I am currently giving a series of talks at the Catholic Chaplaincy in Edinburgh on the theme of Catholic Social Teaching and primarily intended for a student audience. Welcome to all those who are attending the talks and to anyone else who has come upon this site with a view to finding more information on Catholic Social Teaching!

For those attending the talks, you'll find a dedicated page for resources here.

Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching: final post

                                                              Christ Pantocrator*

This will be the final post of the four week course on Anthony Esolen's Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching. You are of course very welcome to add comments in the boxes at any time.

In the other posts this week, I've covered general issues such as Esolen's methodology and the question of the depth and detail of his vision of societies. In this final post, I want to say a little about a striking feature of Leo's social teaching which Esolen constantly emphasizes: the importance of the 'little platoons' or societies/associations which are intermediate between the State and the individual.

If there's one thing that characterises Catholic social teaching -and, even if not in all places, this is one place where Catholic social teaching has much in common with 'social conservatism'- it is an emphasis on the centrality of the family and civil society to human nature. Unlike some readings of liberal political philosophy, where individuals enter into social groupings, especially the State, by choice, Catholic social teaching emphasizes the existence of groups such as the family which exist prior to the State and, in many ways, prior to our individuality, let alone our individual choice. This is of course most clearly seen in the family: children find themselves within a family, owing duties and having rights with respect to other people that have not been freely adopted and which as much create a person as are create by it. Beyond the family, other associations (such as the neighbourhood or interest groups) also are not exactly freely chosen: again, there is an element of finding oneself already embedded in those little platoons rather than creating them ab initio.

Whatever else may be said about neuralgic issues such as divorce and same sex marriage, this observation helps to throw light on why these are taken so seriously by Catholics in a way that seems often incomprehensible to outsiders. For the classic liberal, the starting point is the individual and his or her freely chosen associations: the State is there to serve and facilitate those individual choices. For Catholicism, whatever truth there is in that liberal vision (and I would accept that there is much truth in it) it leaves out other key elements, among which, from the perspective of social teaching, the two most important are our relationship to God and his Church, and our relationship to our families. Just as individual rights are fundamental to liberalism, the rights of the biological family are a fundamental part of Catholic social thought. Putting aside our relationship to God for the moment (and Esolen's work stands as a reproach to the thought that such as secularised attitude can ever be an adequate starting point for social thinking), for Leo's social teaching, the family is one of the basic building blocks of society (indeed, in many ways, the building block) and any changes in it (even if possible) would require as much serious attention as attenpts to remake individual human beings. It is this importance of the family -quite apart from what reflection on that importance might bring- which makes recent changes in marriage law and practice so serious an issue for Catholic social teaching, a seriousness which is often completely baffling to non-Catholics.

That's it as far as the formal elements of the course are concerned! Thank you to all those who have followed along over the last weeks. For anyone coming to this course later on, I hope you find some of these posts useful. But, of course, the main thing I'd say is: make sure you've read Anthony Esolen's book! (Here.)



[Details of image here.]

Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching: post 12

This is the second in the final week's posts which aim to present a critical discussion of the book as a whole. In yesterday's post, I discussed Esolen's methodology. In today's post, I want to discuss some of the content of that vision of a Catholic society I suggested he was aiming to pass on.

A striking feature of Esolen's presentation has been his emphasis on aesthetics: not only has he continually engaged with the artistic in most of the chapters, but he has frequently focused on images. Indeed, the whole work could be perhaps be described as trying to show the integritas, consonantia and claritas (wholeness, harmony, radiance: the three aspects of beauty according to Aquinas) of a Catholic society. Rockwell's images above are but one example of the paintings considered by Esolen.

Now although in the post (post 4) I considered Esolen's remarks on Rockwell I admitted I disliked the paintings intensely, Esolen has a point in claiming that they do capture something right: roughly, the tenderness of young not-quite-yet-sexual love between the sexes. You might, if you prefer and have a stronger stomach than mine, consider Donny Osmond's Puppy Love as a further popular example of this theme:

Whatever is wrong with these artworks (and I'll go on to discuss that) their popular appeal on the theme of innocent love ought to give us some pause for thought. Esolen praises the way that Rockwell's images gesture to a life beyond the immediate: the children are situated in a social world of small town America; they are situated in the natural world accompanied by other species etc etc. But there is also a completeness: the children themselves- or at least the adult selves they gesture towards- also form a complete world between them, the world of the primary society which is the family.

A lot of Esolen's images have this completeness. In the final chapter, his imagining of a community at peace with itself at Mass as the perfect society is the paradigm of this completeness. The problem for actually existing societies -whether these are marriages, businesses or States- is that this degree of completeness seems impossible. Whether it is the bickering of even a happy marriage or the political antagonisms of the nation state, incompleteness and strife seem hardwired into actually existing societies. Moreover, it might be claimed, such an eristic atmosphere is necessary. Returning to the Rockwell images, whatever else might be said about them, they seem to fit Roland Barthes' category of readerly texts which have a closed, single message, rather than the more open writerly texts which invite numerous different interpretations through their incompleteness. Just as Rockwell's images are aesthetically inadequate because of their straightforwardness and (relative) hermetic completeness, so Esolen's images of perfect societies are politically inadequate because of their ignoring of complexity and indeed disharmony as necessary ingredients of modern (and indeed ideal) social life.

What might be said on behalf of Esolen in response to these criticisms? First, Esolen is not committed to the aesthetic defence of Rockwell: it is perhaps precisely in the lack of depth and complexity that the American Protestant/secular view of society is lacking. Indeed, once you take God and the community gathered round the sacrifice of Christ at the Mass out of society that it becomes trite and ultimately unrealistic. Something like Rockwell's view of small town American life is a fantasy (and not in the end even a terribly inviting fantasy). Something like Dante's Divine Comedy (about which Esolen has also written) is, whilst imaginative, both complex and deep. It is that sort of deep image that Esolen is claiming Leo XIII is presenting in his writings rather than the superficial image of Rockwell.

Secondly, there is the role of the coherent ideal even in the midst of disharmony and complexity. Reclaiming Catholic Social Teaching is a relatively short book and it is an introduction to Leo's writings. (And Leo's writings themselves might be seen only an introduction to the full body of Catholic thought in this area.) But by presenting a relatively short, focused work which itself presents merely the sketch of an ideal, we are better able to orient ourselves when it comes to the nitty gritty of social life and politics. When all is in flux, a simplified, clear ideal may be of more use that a detailed, realistic representation. The London Underground map, for example, by simplifying and abstracting, is much more useful as a guide than a more realistic map of the rail network would be:

[There'll be a final post this week on Friday 18 September 2015!]