The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, Forty Years Later La teologia politica di Michael Novak

Abstract

This contribution proposes a rereading of the crucial issues of the best-known work of the American theologian, philosopher and political scientist Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, forty years after its first publication. Halfway between the treatise on political economy and theological reflection on the economy, the 1982 text presents itself as a fundamental point of connection between the modern social doctrine of the Church and liberal thought. In particular, the Catholic dogma of the Trinity offers a model on the basis of which it is possible to understand the idea of system and individual that Novak elaborates and to recognize in the theology of democratic capitalism outlined by him the proposal of a political theology for liberal society.