Prophet of the Christian Social Manifesto: Joseph Husslein, S.J.: His Life, Work, & Social Thought (review)

Joseph Husslein, S.J. (1873-1952), was a prolific writer on Catholic social thought, an editor of the Jesuit journal, America, author of devotional works, creator and editor of "A University in Print" (see ante LXXXVII [October, 2001], 688-705), and founder of the School of Social Sciences at Saint Louis University.

This slim volume sketches Husslein's life and then devotes most of the text to an exploration of his social thought. Werner clusters Husslein's writing by themes including socialism, capitalism, an alternative to capitalism that he called democratic industry, and cooperatives. Given the brevity of this publication, Werner devotes a painful amount of space to Husslein's "A Catholic Social Platform" that was adopted by the Catholic Social Guild in Great Britain. He cites all of its sixty social principles, sometimes with and too often without significant commentary or interpretation.

Husslein's publications on Catholic social thought were eclipsed by the work of other writers—including such men as John A. Ryan and Peter E. Dietz. There were many reasons for this, not the least of which was the contrast between the practical, action-oriented approach of the latter and the more theoretical and sometimes naïve Husslein. Nevertheless, Husslein's contributions warrant exploration and this book by Stephen A. Werner is a welcome addition to the literature.

Virtually everything that Husslein wrote drew upon Pope Leo XIII's profoundly influential encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891). He believed that only the Church's teachings held the key to the problems afflicting working men. He was enamored of the medieval guilds of workers and craftsmen and saw in them a potential model for America. But as Werner noted, Husslein did not differentiate between the often-romanticized view of the guilds and the reality of the workers' lives, commenting, "For Husslein, the true social order lay in the past not in a kingdom of God yet to be established on earth." Husslein's influence was largely nullified by his failure to offer ideas that connected with the prevailing circumstances on the often-tumultuous American social and labor scene.

The strength and the weakness of this publication are the same. Werner quotes so extensively from Husslein that the result is extremely choppy. On the other hand, few individuals today read Husslein's original text. Thus the inclusion of so much of it provides a significant sense of his writing and thinking. It would have been improved with less of Husslein and more of Werner, and it would also have been helpful if the author had compared Husslein's thought with that of other scholars of the time. Inclusion of a list of abbreviations for Husslein's works would also have been helpful.

Scholars interested in exploring Catholic social thought in the early decades of the twentieth century will find an excellent bibliography as well as an exhaustive list of Husslein's publications.