Modem Catholic Social Documents & Political Economy by Albino Barrera, O.P. (review)

652 BOOK REVIEWS Modern Catholic Social Documents & Political Economy. By ALBINO BARRERA, 0.P. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2001. Pp. 340. $69.95 (doth). ISBN 0-87840-856-8. The purpose of Albino Barrera's Modern Catholic Social Documents & Political Economy is to provide a "small step" towards an interdisciplinary examination of the claims of Catholic social teaching. It is successful in this endeavor, providing an extensive evaluation of Catholic social teaching and contrasting it with secular economics literature. In doing so it makes a helpful contribution towards dialogue between Catholic and secular economic perspectives. The book is divided into five parts. The first part examines the economics underlying modern Catholic social teaching, the second reviews the evolution of this teaching from the Scholastic to the modern periods, and the third contrasts it with contemporary secular economic thought. Part 4 engages a number of postindustrial economic questions, and provides a sound explication of the principles of the universal destination of goods, private property, and the primacy of labor over capital, showing how all three are "distinct from each other, yet inseparable" (204-5). The book's attempt at a broad synthesis of modern Catholic social teaching, including both Church documents and secondary material, is found in part 5. The author charges that modern Catholic social documents serve as an "amorphous presentation" of Catholic social teaching that allows "a broad spectrum of political philosophy, from liberation theology to classical liberalism confidently claim selected texts of this tradition as an affirmation of their own position" (viii). He also notes, however, that if "used together as a single analytical framework, the tradition's complex set of principles and norms prevents [the] abuses, misuses or extremes to which such teachings can be carried when used singly," without reference to the rest of the body of teaching (185). Accordingly, he attempts to build two frameworks to summarize this complex set of principles and norms. The first helps to interpret the principles of Catholic social teaching, while the second is a diagnostic framework for examining social dilemmas and possible solutions in terms of the common good. The first framework lays its foundation in human dignity, based on the human person's creation by God in his image, redemption by Christ, and destiny for union with God (251-52). The actualization of this dignity is then presented as integral human development, seen in terms of our response to the gift of self, of the earth, and of each other (258-61). The second framework provides a series of questions that are meant to aid in examining particular social dilemmas. These questions are divided into two groups, addressing due order and due proportion of the common good. The former deals with the relationship of the person to God and to others in the community, of the community to the marginalized and to the individual, and of the individual and the community to the goods of the earth. Examining the relationship between the community and the marginalized, for example, the BOOK REVIEWS 653 framework incorporates principles of participation, relative equality, and the preferential option for the poor, and asks of any particular proposal what "does it accomplish with respect to the community's commitment to the marginalized?" The questions about due proportion cover the distribution of benefits flowing from the use of the goods of the earth, equitable distribution of gains and burdens across the community, and service to the whole person and to every person (300-301). These frameworks represent a substantial effort to summarize the Catholic social teachings of the past one hundred years. The scope and comprehensiveness of these frameworks are impressive. Somewhat problematic is the fact that the author does not make a point of distinguishing between normative magisterial teaching and commentaries on that teaching. For example, in exploring the question of what counts as superfluous income, Barrera considers both Pope John XXHI's teaching on human rights in Magister et magistra and the concept of three strategic imperatives developed by David Hollenbach, S.J., giving them apparently equal weight (189). Such an approach is common in literature in this field, but the attentive reader will notice that some of the problems raised...