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 What
is Economic Personalism?
- Statement of Principles
for Economic Personalism
- History
of Economic Personalism
- Ontology of
Economic Personalism
Brief Introduction
Economic personalism is an approach to the social order inspired
by the centuries-old tradition of Christian reflection on the ethical
character of social, political, and economic life. It is particularly
concerned with developing a deeper understanding of the moral dimension
of economic, political and civil activity in the Third Millennium.
For this reason, it is actively engaged in developing a meaningful
dialogue between Christian social thought, the natural-law tradition,
and the best insights of free-market economics.
On these grounds, economic personalism may be described as a method
for thinking through the moral, economic, and political dilemmas
posed by modern political economy. As a philosophical position,
however, economic personalism draws upon the Christian humanist
tradition, and is consequently defined by its desire to help to
actualize a free and humane economy within a free and virtuous society.
It thus functions as a means for bringing the intellectual resources
of the Christian moral tradition to bear upon the public square.
Economic personalism acknowledges the contribution made to the
development of the free society by the tradition of constitutionalism,
limited government, free trade, economic liberty, private property,
and rule of law that began to assume concrete form in the West during
the seventeenth century. It holds that these institutions can be
beneficially integrated into a variety of cultural settings.
Economic personalism insists, however, that all such institutions
must be grounded in an anthropology that accurately reflects the
human person’s full dignity as a creature made in the image
of God. One of its primary goals is therefore to illustrate that
these traditions—which themselves draw upon the heritage of
early and medieval Christian civilization—are more likely to
endure when they eschew the utilitarian, relativist, and rationalistic
premises upon which institutions such as limited government have
become increasingly based.
In this regard, economic personalism seeks to complement the free
economy with a distinctly Christian anthropology that draws upon
the resources of faith and right reason. It recognizes the natural-law
tradition as one way of communicating these insights within pluralist
societies, which are often characterized by significant differences
in foundational belief.
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