For a New Humanism of the Economy

• Author: Daniele Ciravegna
• Position: University of Turin, Italy
• Pages: 51-79

The EuroAtlantic Union Review, Vol. 1 No. 1/2014

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For a New Humanism in the Economy

Daniele Ciravegna*

Abstract. The Social Doctrine of the Church (SDC) can contribute to define a “new humanism

in the economy”, since the economy needs ethics in order to function correctly. SDC identifies

four permanent principles: the dignity of the human person, the common good, subsidiarity, and

solidarity, which can be summarized in the “integral human development and the central role

of the person”. By convention, the SDC begins with Pope Leo XIII’s Encyclical Letter “Rerum

Novarum” (1891) and its construction has happened through the addition of arguments, and the

deepening into the discussion of these arguments, made by the pontifical encyclicals from Pius XI

until Bededict XVI, passing through the Second Vatican Council’s pastoral constitution Gaudium

et Spes and the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. The development of this

doctrine hasn’t been linear; rather, on some issues, it has shown second thoughts and changes of

direction. The summary of the analysis of the Social Doctrine of the Church is that it focuses

very much on the current problems of human society. Among these ones, this paper considers in

particular the matter of labour and man as the subject of work. Human work has an ethical value

of its own, which clearly and directly remains linked to the fact that the one who carries it out is a

person, a conscious and free subject, that is to say a subject that decides about himself. The essential

nature of work stems from a subjective concept of it.

Keywords: Social Doctrine of the Church; Ethics in the Economy; Active Labour Market and

Manpower Policies.

Human kind is always “in transition”, rst and foremost from a cultural point

of view, that is in terms of all those behaviours stemming from the evolution

of its culture. In time, this “transition” has experienced phases of very low

* University of Turin, Italy

F      

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speed – indeed with almost no speed, almost still – in other phases, it acquired

high speed, enough to suggest the word “revolution”. Without a doubt, today

the speed at which human cultures and behaviours change has reached high

values; and both cultures and behaviours tend to converge, which is easily

explained: dierent cultures are the consequence of communication barriers

between communities (the separation of languages which created Babel’s

confusion). e spreading of world-wide communication possibilities cannot

but lead to the dierent cultures and “languages” converging.

However, as linguistic confusion brought about cultural dierences, cultural

convergence is now bringing about confusion of the spirits. Today, because

knowledge, relationships and exchanges are world-wide, some milestones

(which move so slowly they appear to be carved in stone) tend to become

obsolete, and this generates confusion and fear in all areas: moral, religious,

ethical, social, economic… New paradigms are necessary because rapid

transformations highlight how negative the encrustations are, much more than

slower transformations do. ey require that these encrustations be removed;

but eliminating the old and creating the new generates uncertainty and fear.

is paper shows that a useful reference framework can be found in the Social

Doctrine of the Church and how this can contribute to the denition of a “new

humanism in the economy”. e Social Doctrine of the Church is here analyzed

1

as the dynamic process of a corpus of doctrines of a Church which “journeys

along the roads of history together with all of humanity” (Compendium of the

Social Doctrine of the Church, 2004, § 18). is corpus of doctrines is evolving

– as Pope Paul VI wrote in the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, 1975,

§ 2 – so as to “to make the Church of the twentieth century ever better tted

for proclaiming the Gospel to the people of the twentieth century”.

By convention, the Church’s Social Doctrine begins with Pope Leo XIII’s

Encyclical Letter Rerum Novarum (1891), but of course its rst and founding

pillar is Jesus Christ, his words and his actions as told by the Gospels. In addition

to the foundations transmitted by the apostles and by the Church fathers,

besides councils, papal teachings (exhortations, letters, messages, speeches,

etc.), ecclesial documents, as well as documents from congregations and

pontical councils – the gradual elaboration of the Church’s Social Doctrine

is based on the encyclical letters, messages and documents indicated in Table

1 For a more complete analysis, refer to Ciravegna (2012).