La seconda libertà: libertà religiosa e libertà economica

The Second Liberty: On Religious Liberty and Economic Liberty

Abstract disponibile solo in lingua inglese

This paper attempts to describe the two liberties, religious and economic, today, a hundred years after Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum. The author's thesis is that religious liberty and economic liberty are intimately connected, like two branches born of the same root. Both have been indissolubly conferred upon humain beings by God. After analysing the differences between the Anglo-American concept of regulated liberty and the continental concept thereof, Novak reconstructs the Catholic Church's position on economic and social matters up to John Paul II's encyclical Centesimus Annus, and reviews the most recent developments in economic science following the collapse of communism. He concludes by predicting that, in the 21st century, economics, philosophy and theology will converge in their study of many common issues, in particular those connected with the human choice.