Centesimus Annus and the Renewal of Culture

In the Acton Institute archives, from the Spring 1999 Journal of Markets & Morality, is this piece by Rev. Avery Dulles, S.J., Professor of Theology, Fordham University. It begins:

"The individual today is often suffocated between the two poles represented by the state and the marketplace. At times it seems that he exists only as a producer and consumer of goods or as an object of state administration."1 In these words from Centesimus Annus, Pope John Paul II presents the fundamental problem of which I propose to speak in this brief essay.

Western society in the present century has been fluctuating between the two extremes mentioned by the Holy Father. In the United States we seem to be caught between the seductions of the welfare state and libertarian capitalism. The one, consistently pursued, leads to the "animal farm" of state socialism; the other, to the anarchic jungle of social Darwinism.

To transcend the dilemma, it is necessary to recognize that politicization and commercialization
are not the only alternatives. In a recent speech, Mary Ann Glendon pointed to the necessity of getting beyond the market/state dichotomy. "There’s a growing recognition," she said, "that human beings do not flourish if the conditions under which we work and raise our families are entirely subject either to the play of market forces or to the will of distant bureaucrats. The search is on for practical alternatives to hardhearted laissez-faire on the one hand and ham-fisted top-down regulation on the other."...

The author's idea of a "brief essay" and my idea of a "brief essay" are a wee bit different. Perhaps you will want to save this for when you want to ponder the universe over a nice cup of hot tea or coffee.

Book notes: mentions authors Michael Novak and George Weigel, among others.