A merry dance of Catholic social doctrine, permaculture, distributism, and other odd answers to pressing questions

Key Texts for Social Justice

2008 Sep 20, 7:54 Sat tags:

Social encyclicals and other major documents of the Magisterium on the Catholic social doctrine

Leo XIII

Pius XI

Pius XII

Pius XII wrote no social encyclical, but gave many speeches on social teaching, perhaps the most noted being on on Pentecost, June 1, 1941, for the fiftieth anniversary of Rerum Novarum. The Vatican site lists it here, but currently only has translations in Italian, Portugese, and Spanish.

John XXIII

Vatican II

Paul VI

John Paul II

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Benedict XVI

Coming soon: Caritas in Veritate

Major distributist texts available online

The Servile State, by Hilaire Belloc

The Outline of Sanity, by G. K. Chesterton

What's Wrong with the World, by G. K. Chesterton

Guilds, Trade, and Agriculture, by A. J. Penty

Fields, Factories and Workshops, by P. Kropotkin

The Acquisitive Society, by R. H. Tawney

Do We Agree? by G. B. Shaw and G. K. Chesterton

Texts by "non-distributist" folks who had similar ideas

Major distributist texts I haven't found yet online

Economics for Helen, by H. Belloc

Restoration of Property, by H. Belloc

Liberty and Property, by H. E. Humphries

Primer of Social Science, by H. Parkinson

The Church and the Land, by Vincent McNabb, O.P.

The Change, by G. C. Heseltine

Most of the above distributist titles were on the recommended reading list in G.K.'s Weekly, the distributist paper which Chesterton edited.

« Chesterton: A real vote or a lord's jest?

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