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Toward a Moral Marketplace
| Article
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10628 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1993 |
2,517 Words |
| Author
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Doug Bandow
Doug Bandow is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and the
author of Beyond Good Intentions: A Biblical View of Politics
(Crossway). |
THE CATHOLIC ETHIC AND
THE SPIRIT OF CAPITALISM
Michael Novak
New York: Free Press, 1993
334 pp., $24.95
The religious Left has been adrift since the collapse of communism around the world. In practice, collectivism simply doesn't work. Not only did socialism fail to provide the mass citizenry--in contrast to the privileged nomenklatura--with sufficient material sustenance, but it also imposed political barbarism and spiritual sterility. Even more embarrassing for critics of capitalism was the way market economies, through both the material plenty they produced and the social forces they embodied, helped destroy Soviet tyranny. This liberating role extends back even before communism. Observes Michael Novak, the well-published lay theologian at the American Enterprise Institute: "There is undeniable irony in the fact that the Catholic spirit, over many centuries, did far less to lift the tyrannies and oppression of the preliberal era than did the capitalist spirit." To go on arguing, then, for Christian socialism or a dialogue between Christianity and Marxism is to appear blind, if not stupid, and ensure utter irrelevance.
Yet many people of religious faith still feel uncomfortable with capitalism, particularly its conspicuous materialism, lack of rhetorical emphasis on the poor, and seemingly disproportionate reward for individual achievement. Indeed, some economic libertarians summarily dismiss theology and have contributed to the worst caricatures of capitalism: witness Ayn Rand's denunciation of altruism, praise of selfishness, and rabid atheism. While a belief in the right of people to freely exchange goods and services, the foundation of market economics, does not logically translate into a rancid antispirituality, to some on both sides capitalism has essentially become a rival philosophy, competing for the allegiance of the whole man.
Economics and theology should be complements, not antagonists, however. The failed communist experiment proves that collectivism will meet neither man's material nor spiritual needs. At the same time, Novak rightly warns that the survival of the market is ultimately tied to the vitality of the larger social ethic surrounding it. "The only long-lasting foundation for a capitalist society is a moral, spiritual, and religious one," he writes. Thus in The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Novak explores the theological underpinnings of the free marketplace--that people are made in the image of
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