released 5/8/2026
F. Russell Hittinger, author of On the Dignity of Society: Catholic Social Teaching and Natural Law (Catholic University of America Press, 2024), highlights the key movements and influential thinkers in the history of Catholic social teaching. With emphasis on the work of Pope Leo XIII, Pope John Paul II, and Pope Benedict XVI, Hittinger explains how the Church responded to social and historical movements with deep and rich teaching on the dignity of the human person and the dignity of society. In addition to papal encyclicals, Catholic lay theologians and philosophers such as Jacques Maritain and Étienne Gilson provided a substantial and influential body of scholarship on social doctrine, rooted in natural law theory. Hittinger discusses how Catholic social teaching addressed the issues of radical individualism, collectivist political ideology, and the nature of true authority.
44 minutes
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