Against Satanic Economics: Aquinas’ Theology of Virtue and Political Economy

The purpose of this essay is to challenge the Modern assertion that economics is a theologically neutral science founded in the pure rationality of number, yet also connected to morality, particularly in regards to the ancient virtue of justice—“to render to each one their due”. Such an understandin...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Lentz, Ralph Eugene (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: Wiley-Blackwell 2017
Dans: New blackfriars
Année: 2017, Volume: 98, Numéro: 1075, Pages: 245-263
Sujets non-standardisés:B Political Economy
B Alasdair MacIntyre
B Aquinas
B Summa Theologica
B Virtue-Ethics
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Résumé:The purpose of this essay is to challenge the Modern assertion that economics is a theologically neutral science founded in the pure rationality of number, yet also connected to morality, particularly in regards to the ancient virtue of justice—“to render to each one their due”. Such an understanding has come at great philosophical, moral, and economic cost, as the Great World Recession of 2008–2013 is demonstrating. Instead, I argue that today's current economic crises are due precisely to a loss of orthodox Christian theological understanding of economics and virtue. I make this argument by examining St. Thomas Aquinas’ theological understanding of the virtues and his consequent understanding of political economy in the Summa Theologica. To evaluate the viability of applying Aquinas’ thought in addressing today's severe economic and ethical crises, I also consider Alasdair MacIntyre's call for a revival of Aristotelian virtue ethics along with his advocacy of Thomisic rationalism to combat the West's ethical decline. However, with John Milbank, I maintain that the integral deprivation of Western moral philosophy and political economy requires a distinctly theological solution that supersedes MacIntyre's neo-Aristotelianism and neo-Thomism. This is to be found in a (radical) orthodox reading of Aquinas’ Summa.
ISSN:1741-2005
Contient:Enthalten in: New blackfriars
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/nbfr.12045