Bonus Sample: Why Does JD Vance Think Catholic Social Teaching is Cool?

JD Vance calls Catholic Social Teaching (CST) a "fully integrated theory of a good human life" — and he's not wrong that it sounds good. So how’s he going to weaponize it?

Matthew traces why CST's moral critique of capitalism, innovated by Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum (1891), is tailor-made for Vance's political project. CST may be sincere about human dignity, but it actively suppresses structural analysis, while opening two dangerous doors of moralism: scapegoating powerful enemies above, and blaming the poor for their own immiseration below. 

Show Notes

Rerum Novarum, Leo XIII (1891)

Humanum Genus, Leo XIII (1884)

Purusha Sukta, Rigveda 10.90

B.R. Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste (1936)

JD Vance, Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith

David Kertzer, The Popes Against the Jews

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