Description
Book SynopsisMost people think that free-market ideas and theories were first substanially developed in the eighteenth century by figures such as Adam Smith. In this revised edition of Faith and Liberty, Alejandro A. Chafuen illustrates this misconception by examining the sixteenth and seventeenth century writings of a group of Catholic theologians and philosophers. The Late- Scholastics, as they are called, were the first to engage in a systematic moral analysis of the ethical issues associated with trade and commerce. In doing so, they arrived at solutions that are in many senses indistinguishable from the ideas of many modern free market commentators. In this revised ediiton, Chafuen blosters his case by including recent and pertinent material which gives rise to new questions and concerns. Reading this book will force to consider what they understand to be an authentiaclly Christian approach to economic questions.
Trade Review. . . Chafuen convincingly undermines the facile assumptions that free-market ideas and theories originated with Adam Smith and his contemporaries. * Theological Studies *
This book likewise seeks to address itself to free market economists and historians who have neglected or failed fully to understand the relation of general moral purpose to economics itself. Chafuen relates this connection in a coherent and systematic manner that should also serve as a positive contribution, seen in light of this long history of moral and economic reflection, both to modern economics as a study and to modern social thought as a practice. -- James V Schall, Georgetown University * From The Foreword *
Table of ContentsChapter 1 The Late Scholastics Chapter 2 The Scholastic Approach to Economics Chapter 3 Private Property Chapter 4 Public Finance Chapter 5 The Theory of Money Chapter 6 Commerce, Merchants, and Tradesmen Chapter 7 Value and Price Chapter 8 Distributive Justice Chapter 9 Wages Chapter 10 Profits Chapter 11 Interest and Banking Chapter 12 Late-Scholastic Economics Compared with "Classical Liberal" Economics
