Fifteen junior faculty and graduate students from international institutions are gathering at the University of Notre Dame May 23-25 for an intensive seminar on “Economics and Catholic Social Thought.” The ND Center for Ethics and Culture is cosponsoring the seminar in collaboration with the Lumen Christi Institute and the Catholic Research Economists Discussion Organization. Scholar participants represent top-tier universities including Georgetown, UC Berkeley, University College London, Université Laval, and the University of Chicago.
“We are delighted to cosponsor this seminar to form future professors and economists in the major themes of Catholic Social Teaching,” said Carter Snead, director of the Center for Ethics and Culture. “Our interconnected global economy can richly benefit from a universal set of fundamental principles in service to the common good. Through their reading and shared discussion, seminar participants will gain a solid understanding of the Church’s call to build a just society undergirded by respect for the fundamental dignity of the human person, the necessity of care for the poor and vulnerable, the dignity of work, and the rights of workers. Our hope is that these themes will provide a solid foundation for their own future teaching and economic policymaking.”
The presenting faculty includes professors from Notre Dame, the University of Pennsylvania, Villanova, and Pepperdine. Participants will be introduced to foundational principles in Catholic social thought starting with the human person, dignity, freedom, subsidiarity, solidarity, and the common good, and move toward applications of these principles to conceptual understandings and ethical considerations involving economic topics such as utility theory, firm objectives, wages, markets, globalization, poverty, and development. Participants will read and discuss social encyclicals, secondary sources, and relevant economics texts in twice-daily guided seminar discussions.
The Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture is the leading center for scholarly reflection within the Catholic moral and intellectual tradition. The Center is committed to sharing the richness of this tradition through teaching, research, and dialogue, at the highest level and across a range of disciplines. For more information about this seminar or about the Center for Ethics and Culture, contact communications specialist Ken Hallenius at 574-631-3192 or khallenius@nd.edu.
Originally published by Kenneth Hallenius at ethicscenter.nd.edu on May 23, 2016.