Recent lecture focuses on controversial topic of Catholic Church and the free market economy
Dana Clowes
Issue date: 2/23/10 Section: News
"I get into a little bit of trouble for this book," Dr. Thomas E. Woods admitted in his Moral Foundations of Capitalism lecture last week. The book he referred to was his 2005 published and Templeton Enterprise Award winning book, The Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy.
Dr. Woods' lecture spoke directly to students about the highly controversial subject of the Catholic Church and a free market economy. Woods' conversational tone made it easy to follow his points and to understand just how easily his words can be misconstrued.
Woods admits to being a devout Catholic, but feels that the church and talk of economics need to be two separate institutions.
Specifically, he cautions against the use of papal documents regarding the economy. Woods cited numerous papal documents that have been interpreted by economists and taken as fact, he warns students against this stating that the "Pope's authority is carefully delineated: Popes can make statements about morality in our economy," but he reminds us that the Pope cannot possibly possess the answers to all the technical questions of economics.
A major focus of Woods' lecture was defining where exactly religion fits into the economic discussion. Woods carefully skated around the material covering exactly what the church says about the free market economy. He defined the free market economy for the audience as, "a system of voluntary exchanges bounded by private property rights." Using this definition to base his discussion, Woods demonstrated for the audience instances where church and papal documents could be used to defend the use of a free market economy and to deny its merits.
Specifically Dr. Woods spoke of Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Navarum, in which he discusses capital and labor, the two key elements in the discussion of economics. "Each needs the other: capital cannot do without labor, nor labor without capital," Rerum Navarum reads, and Woods interprets for us saying that Leo is arguing that labor and capital are not antagonistic, but instead need each other to function.
Dr. Woods' lecture spoke directly to students about the highly controversial subject of the Catholic Church and a free market economy. Woods' conversational tone made it easy to follow his points and to understand just how easily his words can be misconstrued.
Woods admits to being a devout Catholic, but feels that the church and talk of economics need to be two separate institutions.
Specifically, he cautions against the use of papal documents regarding the economy. Woods cited numerous papal documents that have been interpreted by economists and taken as fact, he warns students against this stating that the "Pope's authority is carefully delineated: Popes can make statements about morality in our economy," but he reminds us that the Pope cannot possibly possess the answers to all the technical questions of economics.
A major focus of Woods' lecture was defining where exactly religion fits into the economic discussion. Woods carefully skated around the material covering exactly what the church says about the free market economy. He defined the free market economy for the audience as, "a system of voluntary exchanges bounded by private property rights." Using this definition to base his discussion, Woods demonstrated for the audience instances where church and papal documents could be used to defend the use of a free market economy and to deny its merits.
Specifically Dr. Woods spoke of Pope Leo XIII's Rerum Navarum, in which he discusses capital and labor, the two key elements in the discussion of economics. "Each needs the other: capital cannot do without labor, nor labor without capital," Rerum Navarum reads, and Woods interprets for us saying that Leo is arguing that labor and capital are not antagonistic, but instead need each other to function.
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