When Is Self-interest Moral?

A Gap in Catholic Social Teaching

Daniel K. Finn November 21, 2011 - 11:19am

Lutheran bishop Peter Rogness recently decried our national loss of awareness that government is self-government, and warned that political discourse “to rally people against their own government...is like an immune system run amuck that eats the very body in which it resides.” Yet since the electoral success of Ronald Reagan in 1980, more and more Republicans have run for office “against government.” This has been at the center of the political stalemate in Washington, and certainly creates...

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Topics: 
Pope John Paul II
Financial Crisis
Economy
Financial Crisis
Pope Benedict XVI
U.S. Catholicism

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About the Author

Daniel K. Finn teaches economics and theology at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University. His most recent book is The Moral Dynamics of Economic Life: An Extension and Critique of Caritas in veritate (Oxford, 2012).

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