Books, Arts & Manners: Theory and Praxis

Freedom with Justice: Catholic Social Thought and Liberal Institutions, by Michael Novak (Harper & Row, 253 pp., $17.95)

Many Catholic thinkers have had a hard time seeing in capitalism anything but systematized avarice. Yet, as Max Weber said, the impulse to acquisition has, in itself, nothing to do with capitalism: It has always been common to soldiers, gamblers, waiters, prostitutes, and artists. Acquisitiveness is universal; capitalism isn’t. The capitalist, according to Weber, is a secular ascetic who forgoes consumption in order to produce. To use John Stuart Mill’s distinction, the capitalist turns wealth into capital, wealth-producing wealth.

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Joseph Sobran

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Freedom with Justice: Catholic Social Thought and Liberal Institutions, by Michael Novak (Harper & Row, 253 pp., $17.95)

Many Catholic thinkers have had a hard time seeing in capitalism anything but systematized avarice. Yet, as Max Weber said, the impulse to acquisition has, in itself, nothing to do with capitalism: It has always been common to soldiers, gamblers, waiters, prostitutes, and artists. Acquisitiveness is universal; capitalism isn’t. The capitalist, according to Weber, is a secular ascetic who forgoes consumption in order to produce. To use John Stuart Mill’s distinction, the capitalist turns wealth into capital, wealth-producing wealth.