Michael Naughton

The specific concern in What We Hold in Trust comes to this: the Catholic university that sees its principal purpose in terms of the active life, of career, and of changing the world, undermines the contemplative and more deep-rooted purpose of the university. If a university adopts the language of technical and social change as its main and exclusive purpose, it will weaken the deeper roots of the university's liberal arts and Catholic mission. The language of the activist, of changing the world through social justice, equality and inclusion, or of the technician through market-oriented incentives, plays an important role in university life. We need to change the world for the better and universities play an important role, but both the activist and technician will be co-opted by our age of hyper-activity and technocratic organizations if there is not first a contemplative outlook on the world that receives reality rather than constructs it. To address this need for roots What We Hold in Trust unfolds in four chapters that will demonstrate how essential it is for the faculty, administrators, and trustees of Catholic universities to think philosophically and theologically (Chapter One), historically (Chapter Two) and institutionally (Chapters Three and Four). What we desperately need today are leaders in Catholic universities who understand the roots of the institutions they serve, who can wisely order the goods of the university, who know what is primary and what is secondary, and who can distinguish fads and slogans from authentic reform. We need leaders who are in touch with their history and have a love for tradition, and in particular for the Catholic tradition. Without this vision, our universities may grow in size, but shrink in purpose. They may be richer but not wiser.

If we don't get Sunday right, we won't get Monday--or any day of the workweek--right. The divided life is a temptation so built into our society, we may not even recognize it. Yet most of us fall prey to it. We either undervalue work, resenting it as simply a job, or we overvalue it as an identity-defining career. Michael Naughton, drawing on his background in both business and theology, proposes that the key to finding balance is another important human activity: leisure. In light of leisure--not mere amusement, but time for family, silence, prayer, and above all, worship--work becomes a space where men and women can find deep fulfilment. Naughton provides real-world examples of how businesses can promote authentic human flourishment and innovation through practices and policies that support leisure. In Getting Work Right Michael Naughton will change how you work--and rest.

"Business leaders are called to engage the contemporary economic and financial world in light of the principles of human dignity and the common good. This reflection offers business leaders, members of their institutions, and various stakeholders a set of practical principles that can guide tem in their service of the common good. Among these principles, we recall the principle of meeting the needs of the world with goods which are truly good and which truly serve without forgetting, in a spirit of solidarity, the needs of the poor and the vulnerable; the principle of organising work within enterprises in a manner which is respectful of human dignity; the principle of subsidiarity, which fosters a spirit of initiative and increases the competence of the employees--considered 'co-entrepreneurs'; and, finally, the principle of the sustainable creation of wealth and its just distribution among the various stakeholders."--Foreword Includes bibliographical references (pages 28-29).

Twelve papers consider what insights the Catholic social tradition can offer to our understanding of the creation and distribution of wealth. Papers discuss wealth as abundance and scarcity--perspectives from Catholic social thought and economic theory (Charles M. A. Clark); wealth creation within the Catholic social tradition (Robert G. Kennedy); a Pauline catechesis of abundance (John C. Haughey); entrepreneurship in Papal thought, creation of wealth, and the distribution of justice (Francis T. Hannafey); wealth creation in the global economy (Simona Beretta); wealth and poverty--the preferential option for the poor in an age of affluence (Clark); inequality in income and wealth (Dennis P. McCann); wealth distribution in economic discourse--Catholic social thought and the individualistic paradigm (Stefano Zamagni); equitable global wealth distribution (Helen Alford); the role of "indirect employers" in wage distribution (Carlo Dell'Aringa and Claudio Lucifora); implementing just wages and ownership (Michael J. Naughton and Robert L. Wahlstedt); and the problem of wealth distribution in the global apparel industry (Lee A. Tavis). Alford is Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas. Clark is Professor of Economics at Tobin College of Business at St. John's University. Cortright is Professor of Philosophy at St. Mary's College of California. Naughton is Director of the John A. Ryan Institute for Catholic Social Thought at the University of St. Thomas. Index.