Abstract

This article provides a summary of the thought of the major economic thinkers of the past two centuries, especially tracing the development of economic liberalism. It notes the resurgence of that perspective in the current era. It points to the flaws in economic liberalism and contrasts the modern social teaching of the Church in the encyclicals to it and to its purported nemesis, Marxism. It notes Pope Benedict XVI’s acknowledgment of the influence of the early German Catholic social thinkers, such as Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler, on that teaching.