John Sharpe in Action
Thanks to the folks at the ChesterBelloc Mandate, there are some savory morsels of our speaker’s work online. Most of these reflect John’s advocacy of the economic thinking known as distributism.
- Capitalism and Catholic Economics Part I
- Capitalism and Catholic Economics Part II
- Catholic Action
- Liberal Economics vs. Catholic Truth
- Why Money is Sick
- Work and Property
You can also see everything tagged “John Sharpe” on the ChesterBelloc Mandate Blog.
Finally, you can read this 2003 interview with our friend on Zenit’s web site: “Reviving the Church’s Social Doctrine for the 21st Century”
One need not be a strict distributist to see merit in the efforts of Chesterton, Belloc, Fr. McNabb and other great Catholic thinkers to craft an economic system using the social teaching of the popes as their foundation. Sadly, there has been no small amount of acrimony surrounding this issue — with brash accusations of “socialism” and “communism” being leveled at men who are deeply Catholic and adamantly opposed to such ideologies.
Efforts have been made to attempt a reconciliation between distributist theories and the free market economy. Wilhelm Röpke, the Swiss economist who advocated for “economic humanism” (which he also referred to as the “third way”), is one who attempted such a synthesis. Röpke was Protestant, but was influenced by the Catholic thinkers G.K. Chesterton, Hillaire Belloc and Christopher Dawson, in addition to the Protestant, Edmund Burke, one of the fathers of modern political conservatism.
John Zmirak, a Catholic scholar, defends distributism while also recommending Röpke’s synthesis. As that linked article indicates, Zmirak is trying to end the belligerency that has arisen between Catholic defenders of the free market economy and their coreligionists who advocate distributism. Zmirak is both avid reader of all the authors named and wrote an acclaimed book on Röpke.