Business Legitimacy from a Catholic Perspective: Thomas Aquinas, Papal Encyclicals, and Human Rights

Abstract

Initiated by Pope Leo XIII at the close of the nineteenth century, the social doctrine of the Church of Rome has matured over longer than 100 years into a sophisticated conception of economic affairs and business life, whereby crucial theoretical as well as practical conditions are identified in order to assess the ultimate legitimacy of the market economy or, for that matter, of any given economic system and business practices thereof. It is this sophisticated conception that is summarized and explained in the present text, dealing, on the one hand, with the basic theoretical framework and background for its development, namely, the long-lived legacy of Thomism, and, on the other hand, with the technical instruments employed for its articulation and dissemination, namely, the Papal encyclical letters on social, economic, political, and environmental matters that, since 1891, have kept being issued by the Holy See.