Abstract

Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato si’ (LS) calls for a wide engagement of all levels of society and of people of all trades in finding solutions to the world’s current social and environmental crisis. However, not much is known about its reception among social scientists. This article surveys responses to LS by economists in three distinct groups: “mainstream” economics, degrowth economics, and the social economy movement. While the first group has not engaged with the encyclical so far, the remaining two groups have produced a variety of responses, which are discussed to highlight their common themes, as well as their differences. It is argued that this discussion can provide a better understanding of the opportunities for and limitations to further engagement between Catholic social thought and economics.