Abstract
Catholic Social Teaching is a body of reflection on the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, drawing upon over a century of reflection in encyclicals and other teaching documents. Its beginning is often traced to Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum in 1891, which attempted to address rising social inequalities that followed in the wake of industrialization in Europe. Throughout the course of the twentieth century, Catholic Social Teaching widened its audience and scope, addressing all people of good will and recognizing the global nature of questions of justice. The aim of Catholic Social Teaching, as John Paul II noted in Sollicitudo Dei Socialis in 1987, is ‘thus to guide Christian behaviour. It therefore belongs to the field, not of ideology, but of theology and particularly of moral theology’ (§41).
John Paul II's claim here gives rise to the question Grégoire Catta seeks to answer in this volume: ‘What does it mean to say that Catholic Social Teaching is theological?’ (p. 1). Catta's method of answering this question is centred around four major documents of Catholic Social Teaching that signify its development since the Second Vatican Council. Each document represents a major social encyclical promulgated by four recent Popes: Paul VI's Populorum progressio (1967), John Paul II's Sollicitudo rei socialis (1987), Benedict XVI's Caritas in veritate (2009), and Francis's Laudato si' (2015). The choice of these four encyclicals is a particular strength of Catta's approach. Each of these speaks to a different critical context in the course of the last century: post-war globalization, the collapse of Communism, the financial crisis, and the climate emergency respectively.
Catta devotes a chapter to each of these social encyclicals. Each is read according to three themes: methodology and style, anthropology, and Christology (p. 144). Each encyclical is also read theologically according to four theological frameworks he sets out in his introduction. These are neo-Thomist, Augustinian, liberationist, and Franciscan (p. 5). He describes the neo-Thomist framework as incarnational, viewing ‘the world primarily as the place of God's revelation in creation’ (p. 5). The Augustinian framework ‘stresses the dimension of sin that is at work in the world and … the necessity of grace, seeing true wisdom—as opposed to mere scientific knowledge’ (p. 5). The liberationist framework arises out of the tradition of Liberation theology and the Franciscan emphasizes the category of creation.
Catta finds that the encyclicals he surveys each emphasize a particular one or combination of these frameworks. For example, he identifies the primary framework of Laudato si’ with its focus on creation as Franciscan and Caritas in veritate with its focus ‘on the gap remaining between the created world and humanity as marked by sin and God's infinite love’ (p. 108) as Augustinian. Catta repeatedly sees that a combination of these frameworks provides a necessary foundation for Catholic Social Teaching as theology: ‘the neo-Thomist framework, with its positive vision of the world where God's grace is at work amid contrasted human situations, is the base. It is enriched by the liberationist and Franciscan ones and only corrected by the Augustinian’ (p. 145). It remains unclear from where Catta derives this meta-narrative, although his choice of Karl Rahner as his main theological resource in his concluding section may suggest this source.
Each chapter provides an excellent survey and introduction to these social encyclicals. Catta contextualizes each encyclical and introduces the reader to the particular circumstances that gave rise to the issues raised within them. Important influences on each encyclical are introduced, before the methodology, anthropology and Christology of each encyclical is surveyed. This approach helps to introduce the reader to the encyclical. Without an appreciation of context or background influence, the social encyclicals can sometimes be difficult for a reader to access. Catta's presentation of each does the reader a great service in enabling them to begin to read each of these encyclicals. The similarity of approach throughout each chapter also aids the reader in comparing and contrasting each encyclical according to the lens Catta applies.
This book is not simply an introduction or for beginners. Even those with a detailed knowledge of the Catholic social tradition will benefit from Catta's presentation of the tradition. The main strength of this book is that it underlines once and for all that the Catholic social tradition is not an adjunct to a robust theological project. Catta enables a theological reading of this tradition which demonstrates the theological assumptions behind each encyclical, but also brings Catholic Social Teaching clearly into conversation with wider theological discussion.
This approach enriches both an appreciation of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) and enables wider theological reflection to be enriched by the insights of CST. Catta's ultimate conclusion demonstrates this point well: ‘With no pretention to be theologically systematic or exhaustive, this teaching, nonetheless, provides significant contributions that emerge from particular sets of historical circumstances’ (p. 168).
Indeed, as Catta notes, theology has nowhere to start but the concrete: ‘Theology cannot start elsewhere than in the historicity of human experiences, because that is where God reveals Godself’ (p. 151). From a theological perspective, CST's resolute focus on the practical and reality of lived human experience becomes a reminder for theological thinking to remain focused on the concrete ground of revelation. From the perspective of CST, this theological foreground reminds the tradition to retain its theological seriousness: ‘there is a more fundamental and transcendent source, beyond mere historical embeddedness’ (p. 151).
These are significant achievements. However, there are two potential weaknesses in Catta's approach. Development is a unifying theme of the book. Each of the chapters is named according to the particular emphasis on human and global development revealed by each of the encyclicals in question. For example, the relationship between ‘development and integral ecology’ revealed by Laudato si’ or between ‘development, justice, and peace’ in Populorum progressio. Whilst highlighting development as an essential theme of the tradition, there is little space given to the criticism of the language of development from liberationist and other perspectives. Catta addresses these concerns in passing but asserts most ‘liberation theologians recognise that the notion of integral development … is compatible with what they intend in pushing forward the concept of liberation’ (p. 65) before concluding, ‘development and liberation have very similar meanings’ (pp. 65–66). Given the focus on development as an organizing theme, more substantial treatment of the limitations of development would have been welcome. Who is being developed and by whom? What issues of power and agency does the language of development raise?
The second weakness is potentially more substantial. Catta's presentation of CST presents this tradition as a partner in the world of ideas, even allowing for the priority of the concrete circumstances of revelation noted above. A key part of CST is the action which this tradition seeks to promote as it encourages practical partnership with all people of good will. One could read this volume as evidence that the Catholic social tradition is a tradition that prioritizes ideas over action and practical realities, whereas CST consistently prioritizes transformative action in the lives of those impacted by situations which are an affront to justice and the common good.
Catta's book is a theologically rigorous attempt to wrestle with the Catholic social tradition that has much to offer both the theological practitioner and academic theologian. It is an important reminder of the theological seriousness of this tradition. However, its litmus test will be whether it inspires the kind of practical action that is at the heart of Catholic social tradition. This isn't a volume to be confined to the shelves of a library. If it is to do justice to the Catholic social tradition it should inspire reading by and alongside those whom CST has at its heart. Catta allows every reader to be opened to the transformative potential of this tradition through his excellent framing and introduction to each encyclical, even if resting content at the level of theological ideas is perhaps less successful in articulating the vision of, and inspiring, the kind of practical transformation this tradition intends.