The Crisis of Global Capitalism Pope Benedict XVI’s Social Encyclical and the Future of Political Economy Now Available

The word 'crisis' has been prevalent of late, usually prefigured by the words 'global economic'.

While both political left and right fail to find a satisfactory solution to the problem, the call for a third, alternative economic system which would not perpetuate the current mistakes and would avoid dependence on the same problematic nature and structure, grows in size. Perhaps unexpectedly, the answer may come from the Chair of Saint Peter.

Adrian Pabst underlines the fact that Pope Benedict XVI's role and influence in matters of global economic politics is full of potential as this economic and financial crisis appears to be a human creation. In his encyclical Caritas in Veritate, Benedict leads a deep economical, political and sociological reflection on the current situation to determine with exactitude the sources of the collapse and to consequently propose a radically new answer to the trouble times we are trying to pass through. Taking this encyclical as an axis of study, Pabst's book closely examines the question in all its possible aspects with scholarly acuity and explains the relevance, advantages and necessity of this proposition: a change from a destructive, purely profit-making global policy to a moral economy rooted in human nature and society on either state law or market relations.

The structure of this study as a collection of essays gives it a very profitable plurality of points of view, critical analysis and organised conclusions on the global crisis and the Pope's answer to it. The Crisis of Global Capitalism provides a common effort to lead a strong philosophical and ethical reflection on our tottering economic order. Pabst's substantial introduction constitutes a valuable prelude to this series of texts; it presents and develops the main issues of the theme in details and gives a basis for the scrutiny and defense of Benedict's Caritas in Veritate.

About the Author: Adrian Pabst is Lecturer in Politics at the University of Kent, UK, and teaches political economy at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Lille (Sciences Po), France. He is the author of Metaphysics: The Creation of Hierarchy (2012).

About the publisher: James Clarke and Co Ltd is a long-established British academic publisher specialising in historical and theological books and also in reference material. It has been associated with the Lutterworth Press since 1984.