“This highly informative study points the way into a future in which Catholic ethics can both support and correct a market economy. This book should be read by both Catholics and non-Catholics concerned with the moral basis of modern societies.”

Peter Berger
Boston University

“With a close look at the social encyclicals from Rerum Novarum to Centesimus Annus, Michael Novak introduces a fresh hypothesis—the emergence of positive theological and ethical correlations between Catholicism and capitalism. Since Novak has proven to be more prescient on economic and religious matters than most of his Protestant critics want him to be and many of his Catholic colleagues have yet acknowledged, his arguments deserve close attention and vigorous debate.”

Max L. Stackhouse
Author, Public Theology and Political Economy

“More clearly than any other book I’ve read, Michael Novak’s eminently scholarly—and readable—volume shows the insubstantiality of the long-celebrated Protestant Ethic considered as a building block of capitalism. And in the process he opens up masterfully not only the reality of the Catholic Ethic in capitalism’s history but of other social and cultural forces as well.”

Robert Nisbet
Author, The Quest for Community

“Michael Novak’s mind is so penetrating, and so marvelously competent to handle fine problems of balance and principle, we welcome once again his facing this truly basic question: What exactly ought to be the congruity of the Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism? He never fails us.”

William F. Buckley, Jr.
President and Editor-at-Large, National Review

“With this book Novak clearly establishes his right to be called the preeminent Catholic social theorist of his generation. Few authors can equal his command of the Catholic intellectual tradition.”

Jude P. Dougherty
The Catholic University of America

“This book is a great contribution to the dialogue between the ‘American experiment’ and Christian social doctrine…. Of particular theoretical significance and lasting value is the chapter on social justice, in which Novak reformulates the traditional doctrine in a way that escapes the criticisms of both Hayek and von Mises.”

Rocco Buttiglione
International Academy of Philosophy, Liechtenstein

“This is an important book for us in Central Europe.”

Fr. Maciej Zieba, O.P.,
Director of the Publishing House, “w drodze,” Poland