The Acton Institute's three-volume series on the Foundations of Economic Personalism contributes much to the dialogue between theology and economics. This article, however, identifies a number of shortcomings. These include an overly individualistic bias and a reliance on the Austrian school of economics that are not consonant with Christian and especially Catholic social thought on economic life. There is a certain naivete about the philosophy of science and an artificial bifurcation between economic life (where values are assumed to be subjective) and the rest of life (where objective values are endorsed). The dialogue between theology and economics is badly needed, but it requires a strong dose of self-criticism from all its participants.

Foundations of Economic Personalism is a series of three book-length monographs, each closely examining a significant dimension of the Center for Economic Personalism's unique synthesis of Christian personalism and free-economic market theory. In the aftermath of the momentous geo-political and economic changes of the late 1980s, a small group of Christian social ethicists began to converse with free-market economists over the morality of market activity. This interdisciplinary exchange eventually led to the founding of a new academic subdiscipline under the rubric of economic personalism. These scholars attempt to integrate economic theory, history, and methodology with Christian personalism's stress upon human dignity, humane social structures, and social justice. This second volume in the series surveys the anthropological foundations to the disciplines of economics and moral theology. The first part of the book presents an overview of the German, French, and Polish branches of personalist thought. Particular attention is given to theological anthropology, especially as it is developed by such thinkers as Emmanuel Mounier, Max Scheler, Gabriel Marcel, Karol Wojtyla, and Emil Brunner. Part two surveys models of human nature that have been espoused by various schools of free-market thought-including mainstream neoclassical economics. In conclusion, the authors demonstrate how an expanded understanding of human nature can augment the ability of economic science to model and predict human behavior.

Foundations of Economic Personalism is a series of three book-length monographs, each closely examining a significant dimension of the Center for Economic Personalism's unique synthesis of Christian personalism and free-economic market theory. In the aftermath of the momentous geo-political and economic changes of the late 1980s, a small group of Christian social ethicists began to converse with free-market economists over the morality of market activity. This interdisciplinary exchange eventually led to the founding of a new academic subdiscipline under the rubric of economic personalism. These scholars attempt to integrate economic theory, history, and methodology with Christian personalism's stress upon human dignity, humane social structures, and social justice. This volume presents the methodological and theoretical foundations for economic personalism through a detailed investigation of human action from two different, yet complementary perspectives: from the personalist perspective of Karol Wojtyla in the Acting Person (1969), and the free-market perspective of Ludwig von Mises in Human Action (1949). By comparing and contrasting the viewpoints of Wojtyla and Mises, the authors develop a comprehensive praxeology (i.e., a theory of human action) capable of analyzing human action from moral and economic perspectives. Beyond Self-Interest illustrates how a unified praxeology could encourage more sustained analysis of the moral dimensions of economic activity while simultaneously softening the utilitarian prejudice of contemporary economic analysis.

Thisvolume applies the praxeological and theoretical foundations of the personalist tradition to free-market economic theory. This work defends economic liberty in theologically sensitive terms that reference the personalist tradition, without compromising the disciplinary integrity of either economics or social ethics.

A Book That Could Change Your Thinking About Social and Economic Justice Forever For over 200 years people have been systematically stripped of their dignity as human persons, first by capitalism, then by socialism, as capital ownership became concentrated first in a private élite, then in a State bureaucracy. Forgotten was the demand that the dignity of every child, woman, and man be respected by equal access to the opportunity and means to be productive through ownership of both labor and capital. In Economic Personalism: Power, Property and Justice for Every Person, co-authors Michael D. Greaney and Dawn K. Brohawn explain briefly what happened and why. They then present the principles of how essential institutions can be put back on track to serve the needs of every person. Giving the framework for an economic order that is neither individualist (capitalism) nor collectivist (socialism), but personalist, this book brings into the light of day assumptions about nature, society, and the human person, and about Church, State, and Family that have raised barriers against the full participation of every person in the institutions of the common good. The result of years of intensive research and work in applying the principles of the Just Third Way, Economic Personalism has the potential not only to revitalize how individuals view their institutions and their place in society, but lays out principles that could guide and inspire debate on vital issues of the day and shape public discourse and future policy. Although based on Catholic social teaching based on natural law, the book is written from an interfaith perspective and is readily accessible and applicable by people of all faiths and philosophies.

Luigi Sturzo (1871-1959) - Sicilian priest, intellectual, and founder of the Italian Popular Party - produced a corpus of serious reflection on the moral foundation of the free economy. My intent here is to discuss four theoretical foundations that enable a link to be developed between classical liberalism, the market economy, and Catholic social thought: methodological personalism; the interdependence of moral, political, economic, and cultural liberty; the separation of powers; and the creative subjectivity of the human person. Each of these elements are found in the thought of Luigi Sturzo and John Paul II, who, in my view, contribute substantially to the development of economic personalism.

This distinctive and contemporary departure from hackneyed discussions of political theory introduces readers to a contemporary personalism rooted in the work of Bartolome de Las Casas and emerging again in the contributions of Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin as well as the liberation theology of Gustavo Guiterrez and Jon Sobrino. Thomas R. Rourke and Rosita A. Chazarreta Rourke introduce readers to new sources of personalism by investigating and revising the intellectual history of this theory and its development.

Personalist Economics: Moral Convictions, Economic Realities, and Social Action examines the nature of the worker and consumer from a personalist perspective, comparing that body of knowledge to what is received from conventional economics. A running theme throughout this book is that personalist economics is attentive to both aspects of human material need - physical need and the need for work as such - in a way that does not disregard human wants. Accordingly, this book is more concerned about the philosophical base and description of the economy's significant characteristics than social economic policy. Personalist Economics explores four dimensions of particularly acute human physical need: unemployment, poverty, homelessness, and death. In addressing these four aspects of need, the book delves into the second and third domains of social economics: description of the significant characteristics of the economy, and social economic policy. In the same way, Personalist Economics explores two types of economic cooperation - supra-firm alliances and inter-firm partnerships - as means for addressing certain aspects of human material need. This book concludes with a lengthy discussion of the challenges facing personalist economics in the years ahead.

The Sourcebook is a thematically unified collection of seminal texts in the history of economics on the topic of money and exchange relations (cambium)_its nature, purpose, value, and relationship to justice and morality in financial transactions_within the tradition of late-scholastic commercial ethics.