CST & Economic Justice Mini Course

Apologies for my long long silence.  I hope to make it up to you all over the break!

Just a word about CST teaching.  At the moment I am gearing up to teach a one-credit seminar in Catholic Social Thought and Economic Justice. I have frequently returned to our “brainstorm” last June, where some of us expressed frustration with a “march through the documents” approach to the CST survey.  We’ll see how this turns out, but as I do the syllabus, I sense that a seven-week course zeroing in on one topic provides some additional flexibility.  I thought I’d put out just a few thoughts that might be helpful if other folks are also gearing up to teach in this area.

In terms of getting them into the overarching principles in a short time, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace’s Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church might seem to have a bit of a “cliff notes” feel, but as I reviewed it recently I had the sense that it provided a very helpful shortcut into the overarching principles – especially for a short course.  I’m dipping into chapters 2, 3 and 4 for the first day intro.

In order to avoid the “march through the documents” feel, I have tried to sprinkle throughout the course several concrete applications to discuss. After we spend week 2 drawing out some of the key theme from Rerum novarum and Quadragesimo anno, week 3 will move into a discussion of poverty and development (Populorum progressio and Octogesima adveniens) with a glance at some of the debates surrounding Liberation Theology.  Then in week 4 we’ll read Laborem exercens and explore the problem of billable hours and work schedules in large firm practice.

Week 5 will focus on Sollicitudo rei socialis and Economic Justice for All, and we’ll consider the US Reception of Catholic Social and Economic Teaching – assigned texts include Charles E. Curran, The Reception of Catholic Social and Economic Teaching in the United States (in Ken Himes’ Modern Catholic Social Teaching volume), and excerpts from the 1984 letter by the Lay Commission on Catholic Social Teaching and the U.S. Economy, Toward the Future: Catholic Social Thought and the U.S. Economy.

For week 6 we’ll read Centesimus annus and explore CST Perspectives on Corporate Structures and Law & Economics.  If anyone’s teaching in this area, take a real close look at Mark Sargent’s two pieces – Competing Visions of the Corporation in Catholic Social Thought, J. Catholic Social Thought 561 (2004); and Utility, the Good and Civic Happiness: A Catholic Critique of Law and Economics, 44 J. Catholic Legal Studies 35 (2005) (both at the sidebar under his name).  They strike me as really terrific teaching tools which quickly and neatly summarize the debates in this area, probing the creative tensions within CST.  For the Law & Econ critique we’ll also dip into my Toward a Trinitarian Theory of Products Liability.

Then week 7 concludes the course with some reflections on potential constructive models, including a glance at The Economy of Communion Project, and we'll also explore the question of whether it’s fair to clients to bring CST economic perspectives to bear on legal analysis (dipping into some of the "religious lawyering" ethics analysis.

I’ll keep you posted on their reactions.  I am planning on having fun with this, and hope they do too!  The course has filled to capacity – so I have the sense that there’s real interest in digging in.

I won't say Merry Christmas because I hope to post again before then!

Best, Amy