Recent Encyclical Research Articles

The Economy of Francesco: Ongoing Perspectives for a New Economy

In this editorial we introduce and discuss what the Economy of Francesco (EoF) is and why it matters for research at the crossroad between Economics, Management, Spirituality and Religion. EoF is both a process and a community of people researching economics and management, and/or practising economic activities in the spirit of the long tradition of Catholic social teaching. Founding its ideal roots in the mediaeval spiritual movement of St. Francis, and its fresher branches in the recent encyclicals of Pope Francis on integral ecology (Laudato Sì) and on fraternity (Fratelli Tutti). In this editorial essay, we present and discuss the four papers published in this special issue, and we explore three main areas of research which may be advanced through the lens, the process and the spirit of EoF: sustainable entrepreneurship, inclusive finance, and relationships and communities. Finally, we offer some inspirational research questions that this process has still left unanswered.

“And there the pagans reigned”: Epideictic, Shared Appreciation, Social History

John W. O’Malley, S.J. highlighted the “pagan” origins of the texts recovered from classical antiquity by Renaissance humanists. Although these ancient writers had no relationship to either the Jewish or Christian religions of the Book, their writings were nevertheless valued for offering wisdom and moral insights. Thanks to the epideictic rhetorical genre, shared appreciation across boundaries was emphasized. However, O’Malley also avoided rigidity or literalism in applying principles of the past to contemporary circumstances. Ancient documents are one kind of source; the “social history” in actual practice and application of those documents is another kind of source. This essay surveys some moments in the social history of Jesuit higher education in the post-1814 (post-Restoration) context: an ongoing process of adapting to (or accommodating) challenges posed by the 19th- and 20th-c. USA contexts. A concluding glance at unusual sources used in two recent encyclicals of the Jesuit Pope Francis, suggests broader horizons for future shared appreciations.

Voices of Justice in Non-Fiction Films and in Christianity.

Environmental degradation and one of its effects, global warming, have worsened the inequalities between the rich and the poor among people and nations. The Catholic Church has demonstrated its deep commitment to social justice visibly since the Vatican II, while the most recent Encyclical, Laudato Si1, offered by Pope Francis moves the Church in an unprecedented manner toward the coupling of sustainability and religion to address global inequalities.This paper features a few important dimensions of inequalities to heighten the urgency of global social justice work. It then reviews documents connected to sustainability in Catholic social teaching, with an emphasis on Laudato Si by Pope Francis.Finally, through a brief analysis of a contemporary documentary film, “Virunga” (2014),2 which focuses on a crisis that recently occurred in the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, this paper illustrates an impactful and effective way to articulate global inequality and mobilize coalitions to protect people, creatures and land against violence and environmental degradation.Social documentaries, in general, represent voices for justice and the common good shared by all major religions, and the documents of the Catholic Church highlighted in the paper offer a concrete trajectory for global justice that we see in cinematic form.

Mapping the field of religious environmental politics

Abstract Until fairly recently, consideration of religion has been marginal or even non-existent in the scholarly discourse about environmental politics. Renewed attention to the intersection of these fields has been encouraged by a recent widening in discussions of ‘environmental values’ to include the role of religious institutions and personal belief in forming spiritual environmental values and renewed attention to the place of ethics and religious institutions in global environmental politics. Following a range of historic declarations by religious leaders, the recent encyclical by Pope Francis signalled a new level of integration between Catholic concerns for social and environmental justice. Yet, much of the continued engagement by large environmental NGOs and governments has continued to ignore the complex interrelation of local, intermediate and transnational religious political ecology. In this article, which is based on data gathered during five years of fieldwork, primarily with British Christian REMOs (religious environmental movement organizations), I probe the complexities of political engagement with religious environmentalism which arise from the many different organizational iterations these groups may take. On the basis of such investigation I suggest that effective high-level engagement with REMO groups will be greatly enhanced by a nuanced understanding of the many different shapes that these groups can take, the various scales at which these groups organize, and the unique inflection that political action and group identity can take in a religious context.

Bioética de la esperanza: claves desde la Laudato si´

La reciente encíclica del Papa Francisco ha sido catalogada por muchos como laencíclica sobre el clima y el medio ambiente. Sin embargo, el Papa Francisco nosolo menciona varios de los problemas ambientales del mundo actual, incluyendolos más dramáticos, sino que analiza las causas de dicha problemática y buscaarrojar abundante luz para encontrarle soluciones. En la presente investigación,se ahonda en la importancia del mensaje de esperanza del Papa Francisco frentea la grave crisis que describe en su encíclica y se insiste en la esperanza comoelemento medular de una ética que ayude a salir de dichos problemas, pues sinesperanza no hay ética posible. Se sitúa la encíclica en el ámbito de la bioéticaevidenciando la preocupación del Papa por la situación general del planeta Tierra,poniendo a la persona humana en el centro de dicha reflexión, para luegodescribir los elementos positivos del diagnóstico de la realidad y las apuestasque permiten construir una visión de esperanza.

Człowiek – technika – środowisko – uwagi na marginesie encykliki papieskiej Laudato si’

Celem opracowania jest wskazanie i omówienie relacji materii i ducha w perspektywie odpowiedzialnego dialogu człowieka – techniki i środowiska w świetle ostatniej encykliki papieża Franciszka. Na marginesie wywodu toczy się dyskusja o zależnościach antropocentryzmu, ekocentryzmu i biocentryzmu. Franciszek, podejmując temat kondycji osoby ludzkiej, swoje ustalenia opiera na diagnozie współczesności, nawiązując zarówno do troski wyrażanej przez poprzednich papieży, Magisterium Kościoła, ale również sięga do prac badaczy spoza kręgów kościelnych. Wszystkich łączy troska o człowieka i przyszłe pokolenia. Różnice powstają w ocenie determinantów tego obrazu, działań niezbędnych do podjęcia celem poprawy sytuacji oraz roli i miejsca człowieka w tym planie.

The biophilic city and the quest for paradise

Purpose This manuscript explores the possibilities for global concepts of paradise to serve a cross-cultural urban environmental discourse. The purpose of this discourse would be to contribute to a more widespread mobilization of support for biophilic urbanism. Design/methodology/approach The methodology deployed in the paper draws from original and secondary sources from a variety of regions, cultures and religions surrounding the concept of paradise. These concepts are then compared and contrasted with the discourse of biophilic urban environmental planning. Findings The comparison of cross-cultural descriptions of paradise finds strong similarities across cultures. In addition, it finds close, symbolic connection between secular and religious concepts of paradise and the scientific attributes of urban biophilic planning. These connections open the possibility for closer unification between secular and religious discourses in the pursuit of the development of more biophilic urban designs. Originality/value The timing of this research is particularly appropriate given the recent encyclical on the environment released by the Vatican. Locating perspectives and imagery that can connect large proportions of the population, for whom spirituality is a centerpiece, with rational scientific perspectives on environmentally sound urbanism will be critical in achieving biophilic cities.

Perspectivas teológicas de la encíclica Laudato Si’: Contribución a la IV Semana Teológica en la UCN.

This article encloses two theological lectures o?ered by the author, in the context of an interdisciplinary academic seminar that took place at the Catholic University of the North, Chile. The papers focus on the recent Encyclical Leter Laudato si’ of Pope Francis on Care for our common home, emphasizing the vision on Nature and the responsibility of Humanity toward it, which springs up from a Christian perspective. As it corresponds to a document that is inserted in the Social Teaching of the Church, there is a Theology in the Encyclical that the author tries to identify in some of its fundamental features. In addition, he emphasizes both the interdisciplinary character of the Encyclical as well as the remarkable articulation between the ecological and the social, where he recognizes the ecclesial and theological Latin-American background of Pope Francis.

Editor’s Farewell Note

Looking back at my four years as editor of Advances in the History of Rhetoric, I am thankful to all the authors, reviewers, and special issue editors whose hard work we see represented in volumes 15 through 18. I am also proud of the diversity and high quality of scholarship included in these volumes. I think that the journal’s contents prove that the history of rhetoric as a field has evolved beyond its original preoccupation with ancient and medieval rhetoric into a robust scholarly enterprise that illuminates rhetorical theory, practice, and pedagogy in all historical periods. What binds this diverse set of studies together is the historical lens, a perspective that is sensitive to discontinuities and disruptions, to power struggles, and to the performative complexity of rhetoric as an embodied practice.This is not to say that we all abide by a fixed methodology. On the contrary, historians of rhetoric do not take their approach for granted but instead continue to debate how their scholarly habituation and lived experiences influence their theories and methods of historical research. Witness, for example, Practicing Histories: On the Doing of History and the Making of Historians in Rhetoric, a special issue guest edited by Christa J. Olson (volume 15, number 1, 2012). As Olson remarks in her introduction, “historiographers take aim at points of disconnection” (3) and stitch together places and moments that may not appear related.That this sort of opportune stitching together can generate powerful insights is apparent in the journal’s special issues, most of which began as American Society for the History of Rhetoric (ASHR) symposia. Rhetoric and Its Masses (guest edited by Dave Tell) and Rhetoric and Freedom (guest edited by Susan C. Jarratt) offer not only broad-ranging explorations of their respective topics but also demonstrate the value of historical inquiry into some of the most abiding issues in rhetorical studies. ASHR symposia and special issues that grow out of them allow us to bring together the work of established and young scholars alike, and as such they illustrate the value of ASHR and its journal as sites of scholarly training of historians of rhetoric.In addition to themed special issues, I would like to highlight some of the exciting trends that I believe are gaining prominence in the history of rhetoric. One such trend is the exploration of spatial and visual practices in different historical periods. For example, Diana Eidson’s study of the Celsus Library at Ephesus probes the power of spatial rhetoric to address its historical audiences, both elite and nonelite. Or take Julia Marie Smith’s article on The Book of Margery Kempe, in which she examines the contributions of multiple hands to this medieval manuscript’s central narrative. Not incidentally, both authors use images to support their arguments. Although Advances can accommodate only black-and-white illustrations in print, the journal’s online version allows one to view their color versions.Another trend is the investigation of the relationship between rhetoric and religion in diverse historical and cultural contexts. In the past three years, the journal published studies of theological influences on rhetorical theories and pedagogical doctrines of such figures as Augustine, Austin Phelps, and William Enfield; analyses of the argumentative strategies used by medieval rabbis and Jaina mystics; and essays on the use of religious appeals deployed by nineteenth-century African American speakers. Besides being “sermonic” to begin with (Johannesen, Strickland, and Eubanks 1970), rhetoric often derives much of its poignancy from a connection to religious rituals and imaginaries. Examples of this connection are ubiquitous in contemporary culture; consider President Barack Obama’s spontaneous singing of “Amazing Grace” during his eulogy for the slain parishioners of a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, or Pope Francis’s recent encyclical on climate change. Historians of rhetoric are particularly well positioned to shine the light on such interventions.I do not mean to suggest, of course, that classical and medieval rhetoric have been exhausted as areas of inquiry; quite the opposite. If recent publications are any indication, we still have much to learn from reinterpreting Plato and Aristotle as well as from revisiting the Middle Ages. As someone who is personally invested in regarding afresh rhetoric’s ancient heritage, I wholeheartedly agree with Olson’s (2012) claim: “we look again at old ideas and find ourselves with new questions” (7).This is why I am thrilled to welcome Art Walzer, a renowned scholar of Greek and Roman rhetoric and a beloved mentor to many historians of rhetoric, as the journal’s incoming editor in chief. I am confident that under Art’s guidance the journal will continue to deepen our understanding of traditional sites of historical inquiry as well as grow in promising new directions.Ekaterina V. HaskinsRensselaer Polytechnic Institute

The Ecumenical Movement and Development: The role of personhood

This article is part of several contributions that was presented at the 2015 Southern African Missiological Society (SAMS). The conference theme was undergirded by the theme of the World Council of Churches (WCC) assembly in Busan, South Korea and the recent Encyclical of Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church; Together towards life. The specific contribution of this article lies with the role of personhood in development. The question that I seek to address is to what extent the influential models of development proposed by Korten and more importantly, the ecumenical movement, can do justice to the category of personhood. A secondary question is the complex process through which people come to accept responsibility for addressing their situations.

Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ Call to Ecological Conversion: Responding to the Cry of the Earth and the Poor—Towards an Integral Ecology

The recent Encyclical by Pope Francis, Laudato Si’, On Care for our Common Home, is a remarkable document, both original and continuous within the tradition of Catholic social doctrine. Emerging from and grounded in a very specific religious tradition and constrained by the peculiar encyclical literary form, the document nonetheless seeks to open a dialogue with “every person living on this planet,” about care for our common home. Using the urgency of addressing global climate change as its point of departure, the Encyclical does a superb job summarizing the scope of the present environmental crisis and the disproportionate harms suffered by vulnerable populations of the poor and excluded. It also provides a careful analysis of the root causes of environmental degradation, mapping out the complex linkages and tensions between globalization, economic growth, liberalized trade, unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, environmental degradation, involuntary migration, immiseration and growing inequality. In this respect, the Encyclical, may well come to serve as a useful position paper for the upcoming Paris climate change negotiations or as a background text for a course on climate change or sustainable development. Yet, properly understood, this is not its true purpose. Rather, in its deepest sense, the Encyclical is an appeal to all of humanity to listen to “the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor,” to reject the “throwaway” culture of consumerism, and to embrace a culture of care and a commitment to pursue integral ecology. It is, in other words, a call to ecological conversion: a call addressed not only to individuals but also to individuals-in-community.

The relation between economics and theology in Caritas in Veritate

Caritas in Veritate is the latest in the series of papal 'social encyclicals' beginning with Rerum Novarum (1891). Like its immediate predecessor Centesimus Annus (1991), it presents a body of economic doctrine favourable to the market economy that is superimposed on an underlying body of older doctrine that is deeply hostile to it. This article investigates the possibility that this incoherence results from a corresponding incoherence in the theological framework of the recent encyclicals. The doctrine of the encyclicals is then contrasted with an eighteenth-century, Anglo-Scotch tradition of thought that showed the compatibility with Catholic moral theology of a privately owned, competitive economy driven by self-love. This tradition is the intellectual origin of modern economics, yet it has not been available to the Church of Rome because of an historical accident. The article concludes by speculating upon the reasons for this.

SUGGESTIONS ON REBUILDING CATHOLIC SOCIAL TEACHING ON ECONOMICS

A question hangs over the authoritative status of what has come to be called Catholic Social Teaching. The recent publication of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church gives added point to this question. This paper sketches the elements that should inform a genuinely authoritative Catholic teaching on this subject, based on the foundational principles of Catholic moral theology. The most recent encyclical in this area, Benedict XVI's Caritas in Veritate, is analysed.

Catholic Social Thought and Modern Liberal Democracy

Introduction How might proponents of Catholic social thought persuade citizens of the United States to take the Church's social teaching seriously? Several problems intrude. The United States does not have a tradition of Christian Democratic parties. These parties, whose platforms were marked by a concern for personal dignity, subsidiarity, and a lively sense of human frailty, often suffused the political life of nations such as Holland, Germany, France, and Austria with principles congenial to those of the Church's social teaching. (1) By contrast, as Louis Hartz argued, the liberal tradition is the tradition in American political life, and this may lead to a certain myopia regarding alternative ways of approaching public policy questions. (2) Complicating the problem is the fact that it is not clear where either side stands in relation to the other. This is partly a result of a long history of mutual suspicion. The anti-Catholic tradition in American public life runs deeper than we like to think. (3) Even more important, however, is the long history of antagonism between the Church and proponents of modern democracy. While this history has been redressed somewhat by the Church's recent promotion of democratic regimes throughout the world, advocates of democracy may still think of the Church as a relatively recent friend who sometimes backslides. (4) Then again, citizens of liberal democracy--including many Catholics--are often suspicious of the Church's claim to authority on social issues. Why should any American think of this body of teaching as authoritative in the current marketplace of ideas? This attitude is partly a function of the separation of church and state, with its sense that the Church is a voluntary social organization among many others. Recent scandals do not help in this regard. For many, the Church appears to be just another interest group advocating yet one more political agenda. If so, there is no compelling reason to give its social teachings any more weight than we would give to a pundit's or lobbyist's proposals. Finally, part of the difficulty is that it is not clear where the Church stands in relation to liberal democracy. (5) Sometimes she praises, and other times criticizes, aspects of it. How can we expect our fellow citizens to take the Church's teachings about liberal democracy seriously when she seems muddled about what she thinks? Do we have to resolve this ambivalence before we start a conversation? One cannot explain this ambivalence away by arguing that the Church's social teaching has evolved, for we find that ambivalence persists in more recent encyclicals. (6) If the notion of an evolving social teaching will not do, can we resolve the ambivalence by seeking some underlying consistency in the Church's teachings about liberal democracy? Perhaps, but both these strategies assume that ambivalence should be avoided. Yet, isn't ambivalence a proper response to an ambiguous situation? What if Catholic social teaching's ambivalence toward western liberal democracies reflects ambiguities within them? If so, we should try to understand how modern democracies like the United States contain ambiguities that invite ambivalent judgments. In fact, perhaps this goes a long way toward answering our question about how to get Americans to take Catholic social thought seriously. Perhaps beginning a profitable conversation entails understanding better the ambiguities within American political practices and showing how Catholic social thought can move beyond them in a way our conventional practices cannot. Such a rhetorical strategy need not be interpreted as sectarian partisanship. Many thoughtful supporters of liberal democracy agree that it is in an ambiguous situation. On the one hand, liberal democracies are enormously successful. This is evident in the waves of democratization that have swept the globe for the last two centuries. …

Centesimus Annus: A critical Jewish perspective

The author reviews a series of deep affinities between the Catholic social teaching embodied in Pope John Paul II's recent encyclical,Centesimus Annus, and traditional Jewish teachings about economic justice. At the same time, the author maintains that from a Jewish perspective there is a “disquieting” feature to this recent papal letter. It presents twentieth century history in ways that mute or conceal the role some earlier papal teaching played in the rise of corporatist states, with their authoritarian regimes and xenophobic nationalism.Centesimus annus thus obscures the complex contribution Catholic social teaching made to the events leading up to the Holocaust of European Jewry.

Pope John Paul II's recent encyclical on morality, "Veritatis Splendor"

Pope John Paul II's recent encyclical on morality, "Veritatis Splendor"

Thank God Our Time is Now

The search for God of necessity entails a commitment to the Kingdom and its values. That Kingdom is a present and future reality. Out of our fumblings and failures, our confusion and darkness, our dreams and ceaseless striving, the Lord of history reveals his kingdom among us and brings to pass his purposes.Inevitably the process involves repeated death and resurrection. When everything seems lost and darkness reigns, the power of God is most clearly manifested in our weakness.The Church, we know, has no political agenda. It has, however, a divine mission to proclaim the Kingdom, witness to its values, be a sign and source of universal reconciliation and human renewal. The Church and its members must be a prophetic voice in society. We must seek always to discern the signs of the time and be agents of constructive change at every level. Experience, however teaches us that members of the Church may not speak with one voice for the way ahead is sometimes unclear.The Church’s mission is both universal and particular. There is a global responsibility as well as one which is national and continental. The concern for our immediate country and its neighbours must never for instance blind us to the needs of the Southern hemisphere. To the best of our ability we must keep alive in our continent the sense that solidarity, interdependence and practical concern embrace the whole planet. In this connection I would remind you of what the Holy Father wrote in his most recent Encyclical Centesimus Annus concerning the universal destination of the goods of creation, both material and spiritual.

Property and Justice in the Modern Encyclical Literature

In Catholic social thought since the time of Leo XIII, two important developments have influenced justificatory arguments for the institution of property. First, the traditional language of the “common good” has been augmented by an emphasis in recent encyclicals upon the dignity of persons and the rights of individuals. I shall analyze the warrants for this shift in formulation to see how changes in the language of justification reveal both continuities and discontinuities with the earlier tradition. Second, in the past century of Roman Catholic social thought, understandings of natural law have been subject to significant revision. Especially since the time of John XXIII, the papal encyclicals have sought both to “historicize” and to update those elements in the traditional discussion of property that fail to reflect modern socioeconomic circumstances. In reviewing the recent encyclical literature on these themes, I will consider how, or whether, earlier discussion can be successfully modernized without undercutting the raison d'etre of natural-law terminology in the process.

The Social Teaching of the Church: Laborem Exercens, a New Challenge

On the day of his election, Pope John Paul II said that he is a Pope who comes from far away. We can safely add that he is also a Pope who looks far ahead. All those who follow day by day the social catechesis of the Pope know that his thinking on man in society is very profound and rich. This applies especially to his most recent encyclical. Even two months after the publication of the document, it is still very difficult to appreciate fully its scope, as well as the deep impact it will have on the future development of the Church's social teaching and on the concrete forms of commitment that it challenges us to take up. It is not the first time that the Holy Father speaks about human work. In many speeches delivered in Rome, in other parts of Italy, and during his journeys around the world, he has offered us elements of his thinking on labor. We may remember particularly his speech at Nowa Huta, June 9, 1979, where he did not hesitate to link work to the Cross, and where he already shared with us the main line of his encyclical. There he stated: Christianity and the Church have no fear of the world of work. They have no fear of the system based on work. The Pope has no fear of men of work. They have always been particularly close to him. He has come from their midst. He has come from the quarries of Zakrzowek, from the Solvay furnaces in Borek Falecki, and then from Nowa Huta. Through all these sur? roundings, through his own experience of work, I make bold to say that the Pope learned the Gospel anew. He noticed and became convinced that the problems being raised today about human labor are deeply engraved in the Gospel, that they can? not be fully solved without the Gospel. The problems being raised today about human labor ... do not come down in the last analysis ? I beg all the specialists to pardon me for saying so ? either to technology or even to economics, but to a funda? mental category: the category of the dignity of work, that is to say, of the dignity of man. The quotation from the Nowa Huta speech includes everything: the context, the concern, the main lines of the Pope's thinking about work. The question was raised whether the Pope had written his encyclical on work because of the events in Poland, and more specifically because of Solidarn?sc. I think that the facts provide an adequate answer to this

Management Response to Laudato Si: An Operational Excellence Perspective

In Laudato Si (2015), a recent encyclical of Roman Catholic leader Pope Francis, many major modern world concerns are addressed that negatively impact the care for humanity’s common home. This paper summarizes Pope Francis’ major concerns with implications for businesses and organizational managers. This paper then advocates taking an operational excellence approach to respond to these concerns. In doing so, we make recommendations for managers in the four major themes of waste reduction, focus on people, focus on culture, and interrelatedness. We also suggest some areas for future research.