1. Paul Johnson, "The Capitalism and Morality Debate"

1. it's not inherent immoral; it's morally neutral and needs guidance without destroying it dynamism; how?
2. First, there must be a moral, overall, legal framework which does not promise economic equality but equality before the Law
3. Second, need equality of opportunity which requires equality of education
4. Third, democratic capitalism is promoted though stock sharing; need more to reap the wealth

1. Michael Novak, "An Underpraised and Undervalued System"

1. socialism has an idealistic goal but tends towards tyranny because the rulers are imperfect and cannot rise higher than its leaders
2. the Creed of Democratic Capitalism:

1. individual freedom is best realized through trail and error; freedom in society and religion is best promoted here
2. people are inherently selfish and corruptible
3. people are transformed through a system of checks and balances which harness greed into creativity and virtue
4. it's not inherently good but the best and most realistic

1. Harold Freeman, "Towards Socialism in American"

1. capitalism is basically exploitative
2. the Socialist Principle:

1. cannot justify USSR
2. people are basically fraternal and at their best in communities; hence production should be publicly owned
3. generalized equality is good and thus should eliminate classes
4. social issues should receive attention proportional to their collective estimates

1. there is not guarantee socialism will work; it must deal with:

1. relation between personal liberty and controlled planning
2. how to stabilize and grow an economy
3. changing social and behavioral goals

1. socialism is most likely to fulfill human goals and nature.

1. Conclusion

1. the issue--domination be corporations v. political parties
2. which can best help persons fulfil their virtue

1. socialism tends towards bureaucracy and control--stifles freedom
2. capitalism promotes greed,
3. how to have a capitalism in which "systems" do not invade "life worlds"
4. more emphasis on business as a "meditating institution"

1. the three virtues required of any economy

1. intellectual contemplation
2. professionalism
3. stewardship

1. the church is not valid/meaningful/worthy because it contributes to the economy or makes for good citizens or workers or business people (e.g., trains workers and owners to be fair and hard working);

a. the issue--is the economy good for the church; does it enable the church to fulfill

its calling/vocation/mission

2. the church rejects the following assumptions:

a. "the economy is natural, objective, and morally neutral"--it’s an expression of a

particular self-understanding and is no more "objective and neutral" than is

religion and/or art

b. "there are no absolutes"--the church says that God is good and thus obedience is

absolute (however that may be practiced); the rationale for "no absolutes" is

that in a consumerist market you cannot believe or practice moral absolutes

because they would hinder you and ultimately the economy; f

1) or instance, if your highest social loyalty is to a church and its mission is more important than accumulation of money and possession, then you will not contribute to consumerism;

2) if you are committed to treasures in heaven, then you will not deem

things of the market to be treasures (Augustine--we should desire God alone

and only use temporal things)

3) if you are committed to the poor, then you’ll not judge the rich as the

sign of a healthy and moral economy.

1. God commands Adam to name and till--stewards of the garden, Gen 1.28; 2.20

a. work precedes money and an material economy

b. Calvin--"The only right stewardship is that which is tested by the rule of love"

c. work expresses our love for God’s good creation

2. work becomes a sign of the curse/separation from God, Gen. 3.17

a. the curse--myth of Sisyphus--work cannot fulfill us

b. the Tower of Babel, Gen 11. 1-9

3. money reflects this ambiguity of command and curse

a. simply, money is a social measurement of worth (usually from production or service)

b. the dialectic of money--Matthew 6.24--cannot serve two masters

Luke 16. 9--must use unrighteous mammon for non-

material purposes

c. money severed from love of God’s good creation becomes mammon which

lords over the user and makes her or him arrogant and/or unjust

d. Mammon becomes a lordless power--Thomas Merton--"Money has demonically

usurped the role in modern society which the Holy Spirit is to have in the

Church"

1) a manifestation of greedy power which defines a person/society

1. God’s creation is already an economy--a system of energy and forms of exchange

requiring work by which people can define themselves

a. the divine economy’s goals"

1) Sabbath rest

2) constructive shaping of creation’s potential

2. the ambiguity of economic systems--capitalism and communism/socialism

a. the church cannot never totally endorse either; only partially

b. capitalism--production and freedom; but reject its greed and insensitivity

c. socialism--concern for justice and non-monetary goals; but reject its

centralization and depersonalization

3. the church’s critique of "consumerism"

a. consumerism--an economy based on:

1) buying, not producing or saving

2) immediate gratification, not long term

3) image/marketing, not utility

b. the false values of greed and status

c. the church does not show society how to use money without falling subject to

greed and vanity

d. the church shows how to live without an attachment to money; how to live

without it--Mt. 6.19-34: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth"

IV. The Vow of Simplicity--Mt. 6.21-- "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also"

1. a priority of goals and joys--God, people, and creation

2. live below the average standard of living to free oneself from marketing manipulations

3. concern for justice and the poor--Proverbs

4. spiritual values:

a. experiencing, not possessing;

b. contemplating, not using

c. wisdom, not material power