Catholic Social Teaching in Practice
Exploring Practical Wisdom and the Virtues Tradition

This book investigates Catholic Social Teaching from the neo-Aristotelian perspective of practical wisdom and the virtues tradition.

Andrew M. Yuengert (Author)

9781009261470, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 June 2023

350 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.6 cm, 0.68 kg

'Do many academics live in an unreal world? Not economist Andrew Yuengert. Determined to close the gap between partial economic analyses and their prudential application, and aware of inevitable tradeoffs and inescapable complexities on the ground, he draws upon virtue ethics, Catholic social teaching, and practical wisdom, to lay out a pathway to the common good. This book makes a much needed contribution to the literature.' James L. Heft, S.M., Alton Brooks Professor of Religion at the University of Southern California; Founder and President Emeritus of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies

Although the virtues are implicit in Catholic Social Teaching, they are too often overlooked.  In this pioneering study, Andrew M. Yuengert draws on the neo-Aristotelian virtues tradition to bring the virtue of practical wisdom into an explicit and wide-ranging engagement with the Church's social doctrine.  Practical wisdom and the virtues clarify the meaning of Christian personalism, highlight the irreplaceable role of the laity in social reform, and bring attention to the important task of lay formation in virtue. This form of wisdom also offers new insights into the Church's dialogue with economics and the social sciences, and reframes practical political disagreements between popes, bishops, and the laity in a way that challenges both laypersons and episcopal leadership. Yuengert's study respects the Church's social tradition, while showing how it might develop to be more practical.  By proposing active engagement with practical wisdom, he demonstrates how Catholic Social Teaching can more effectively inform and inspire practical social reform.

1. Principles and practical wisdom in Catholic social teaching
2. The virtue of practical wisdom
3. Prudence in the documents of Catholic social teaching
4. Practical personalism and the laity
5. Lay formation in practical wisdom
6. Catholic social teaching and economics in practical dialogue
7. Catholic social teaching and economics: missing virtue
8. Political disagreements between bishops and laity
9. Making Catholic social teaching practical.

Subject Areas: Religious ethics [HRAM1]