Book Review: Within the Market Strife
During the 2004 election cycle there was much discussion on the Catholic vote and which way it would go. Are Catholics more liberal or more conservative? Where do Catholics stand on economic and social issues? These questions had no real answers to them.
Schmiesing’s book provides some insight into these questions by looking to a period when Catholic thought in America started to come into its own. The book proceeds systematically from the period beginning with Rerum Novarum and ending with Vatican II showing the diverse schools of thought between many of the prominent Catholic thinkers of the time. What is immediately noticeable is that there was rarely complete consensus about what policies to adopt despite coming from the same theological viewpoints in a time where “theological dissent” was properly defined as heresy.
The book is very approachable to those who do not have a great understanding of economics or theology and expounds on the views held at the time in a manner that is easy to digest and understand for the non-practioner. He goes generation by generation describing the views of the principal players about the big discussions of the time. One can understand what could motivate those with the same general moral viewpoints to diverge on issues like right-to-work laws and the living wage.
At a time when it seems that all parties are reevalutating their beliefs, it is helpful for Catholics to go back and see where we have come from and the development of social and economic thought that has occurred. This book provides an excellent point of reference from which to begin to move towards applying Catholic principles to present-day problems.
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