Abstract
Understanding Catholic Humanism and its consequences in economics and business entails discussing three key concepts of this humanism with great ethical relevance: human dignity, human rights and integral human development. The chapter presents the Catholic position on these concepts and discusses their foundation. This foundation, based on a combination of faith and reason, harmonically intertwined, entails a comprehensive view of the human being. Being open to transcendence gives a profound meaning to the ultimate questions of human life and makes a valuable proposition for economics and business.
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- 1.
This and other CST documents are presented here in abbreviations with two letters –such as FR– followed by a number which correspond to the numeration of official documents (www.vatican.va). See a full list of these abbreviations at the beginning of this book, also in the references at the end of this chapter.
- 2.
Pope Francis (2013) has also emphasized the link between faith and reason (LF, 32–36).
- 3.
Within the limited space available, we only aim to present a brief comparison to some other approaches that differ from CST. Basically we aim to present an overview of the Catholic position.
- 4.
This is a central point of Christian faith, known as the Incarnation of the Second Divine Person of the Holy Trinity. Regarding this, St. Paul wrote “when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Gal 4:4). It was “in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children” (Gal 4:5). Thus, Jesus Christ became the Mediator between God and humankind: “For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as a ransom for all—this was attested at the right time” (Gal 4:5–6).
- 5.
Being children of God means being one with Christ and participating deeply in the divine life. Thus, humans might become sharers in divine nature (2 Pet 1:4) and call to increase such participation in the divine life forever: “we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed” (1 Jn 3:2).
- 6.
In Latin, Naturæ rationalis individua substantia. This definition appears in Boethius’ work De persona et duabus naturis (c. II; mentioned by Aquinas 1981, I, 29, 1 and 3).
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
cf. Online Etymology Dictionary, voices “develop” and “development”: www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=develop&searchmode=none
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Melé, D. (2015). Three Keys Concepts of Catholic Humanism for Economic Activity: Human Dignity, Human Rights and Integral Human Development. In: Melé, D., Schlag, M. (eds) Humanism in Economics and Business. Issues in Business Ethics, vol 43. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9704-7_7
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