View article

The dominant mode of globalization has mostly reinforced the disembedding of states and markets from the social practices and civic virtues of civil society writ large. In this process, abstract economic values linked to instrumental reason and procedural fairness have supplanted civic virtues of courage, reasonableness and substantive justice. As such, the global “market-state” reflects the centralization of power and the concentration of wealth that is undermining democratic politics and genuinely competitive economies.

However, the growing economic interdependence around the world also offers new opportunities for reciprocity, mutuality and fraternity among communities and nations. To promote an ethos of responsible and virtuous action, requires the full breadth of political and economic reason. Christian social teaching offers conceptual and practical resources that are indispensable to the search for broader …