A review by Giacomo Costa of: Angelo Tosato, The Gospel and wealth: new exegetical perspectives, Dario Antiseri, Francesco D’Agostino, Angelo Petroni (Editors), in Markets and Morality, Vol.6, n.2, 2003, pp. 689-691.

Costa, Giacomo (2003) A review by Giacomo Costa of: Angelo Tosato, The Gospel and wealth: new exegetical perspectives, Dario Antiseri, Francesco D’Agostino, Angelo Petroni (Editors), in Markets and Morality, Vol.6, n.2, 2003, pp. 689-691. The Journal of markets and morality, 6 (2). pp. 689-691.

[img]
Preview
Text
A review of Angelo Tosato.pdf
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives.

Download (83kB) | Preview

Abstract

This is an important collection of essays, or rather short, synthetic monographs, by a talented Italian Catholic biblical scholar, Angelo Tosato. (Some of his previous studies were published in the Catholic Biblical Quarterly). The author had planned a study on “The Gospel and freedom”: after his untimely death in 1999, Messes Antiseri, D’Agostino and Petroni have made a careful selection some of his extant pertinent essays, which form a surprisingly coherent whole, albeit with some repetitions. That the relationship between Gospel and wealth is of prima facie opposition should be the starting point of any serious discussion: “One may come across important books (such as The spirit of democratic capitalism by Michael Novak) or long magisterial documents (such as Centesimus Annus) devoted precisely to this subject, and specifically aiming at throwing a bridge between the two, only to find that not a word is spent on this basic problem.” This opposition is but an aspect of a more general one: “The Gospel proposes a religious liberation, to be achieved in a religious way. This way is different, and seemingly incompatible, with the liberation proposed by liberalism. On those who want to maintain the compatibility between the two lies the burden of facing the intimations to the contrary that seem to issue from the Christian canonical sources.” As most contemporary Christian theologians, Tosato believes that the Gospel is relevant to our life in this world. As a liberal, he is convinced that in this world we have to tackle a multi-dimensional liberation task, one side of which is economic liberation, to be carried out by full participation to productive activities and markets. Tosato distinguishes sharply between exegesis and hermeneutics. The dissolution of the supposed opposition between the Gospel and wealth should be accomplished by the former; the development of a Christian economic ethics is a task of the latter.

Item Type: Article
Natural Language Keywords: the ethics of wealth, Christian economic ethics, exegesis and hermeneutics
Subjects: Filosofia > Epistemology, causation, humankind
Filosofia > Ethics
Dip. Scienze della Politica > Storia delle Dottrine Politiche
Scienze Sociali > Political science > Political ideologies > Storia delle Dottrine Politiche
Depositing User: Prof Giacomo Costa
Date Deposited: 17 Nov 2013 08:44
Last Modified: 18 Nov 2013 10:52
URI: https://archiviomarini.sp.unipi.it/id/eprint/552

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item