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Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism

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For anyone who is interested in why our culture has produced the Enron's, WorldCom's and the like; or why increasingly our society is becoming one big hommage to corporate giants, have a look at this classic work of Catholic economic history.

The kind of economy existing up until the Protestant Reformation placed the economy at the service of persons, families and local communities. Today, it is the economy that is the lord of us all. We are "consumers" and "human resources." For anyone who hopes and dreams of a better way, this classic work of scholarship will give you the threads to understanding how we got to where we are and provide glimmers of what we must do to recover a person centered economy.

Catholicism, Protestantism, And Capitalism by the late Amintore Fanfani (1908-1999), is an impressively comprehensive and scholarly presentation between traditional Catholic doctrine and the spirit of economic capitalism. This posthumous edition of Amintore Fanfani's seminal and ground breaking study is enhanced for contemporary readers by an informed and informative foreword by Charles M.A. Clark (Professor of Economics, Tobin College of Business, and Senior Fellow, Vincentian Center for Church and Society at St. John's University, New York) and Giorgio Campanini (Professor of the History of Political Thought, University of Parma, Italy). Catholicism, Protestantism, And Capitalism is an uncomplicated read and especially commended to the attention the those of the Christian community with an interest in economics and theology.

This book is indispensible for understanding the development of economic systems of Europe and America in the past few hundred years and some fundamental cultural distinctions between Continental Europe and the Anglo-American sphere of influence.

Few books I have ever read integrate so well religion, politics, economy, and culture into a seamless fabric of social observation. Fewer still provide as accurate of a model for understanding the development and operation of the modern linguistic conflicts and sloganeering which revolves around regulation of economic activity.

This book is a must for readers emergent from the idealistic haze of liberterianism who want to reintegrate the importance of human groups and religious belief systems into their thinking. Its also mandatory for contemporary "conservatives" and republicans who may wish to add some real social ethics into their political philsophy rather than just letting the international free trade lobby do their thinking for them.

This work has the dubious distinction of having convinced many well-meaning Catholics to become socialists. It consists in a collation of warmed-over Aristotle, economic misunderstanding and historical fairytale, all put together to justify the state interfering in every aspect of your (economic) life.

Did you know Capitalism was really identical to Communism? That you shouldn't be allowed to sell anything below what it cost you to buy/produce it (whatever that is supposed to mean)? That the state should not allow you to take out a loan or buy insurance, let alone advertise your business.

If you are willing to believe this kind of nonsense, by all means, go ahead and buy this, and I pray sincerely that you never end up in government.