Arlington, Virginia, Monday, September 2, 2013. In 1940, on the eve of the
United States entry into World War II, the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979)
published Freedom Under God. The
all-volunteer interfaith Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ) has
republished a new, annotated version of this neglected classic under its
“Economic Justice Media” imprint, complete with an in-depth foreword written
especially for this edition, as well as a bibliography and index not included
in the first edition. [UPDATE: NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON] [FURTHER UPDATE: NOW AVAILABLE ON BARNES AND NOBLE]
Then-Monsignor Sheen traced
the rise of totalitarian State power in the first half of the 20th
century to the fact that fewer and fewer people in America and throughout the
world owned capital — what Sheen called “creative wealth.” As Sheen argued,
only widespread private property in capital has the capacity to restore the
foundation of true freedom.
In conformity with the
precepts of the natural law on which Sheen relied to develop his thought, CESJ adds
that genuine economic reform must also comply with the three principles of
economic justice: Participative Justice, Distributive Justice, and Harmonic
Justice. Lawyer-economist Louis O. Kelso and Aristotelian philosopher Mortimer
J. Adler first described these principles in Chapter 5 of their bestselling The Capitalist Manifesto (1958).
Sheen’s warnings fell on deaf
ears. Thanks to the near-global acceptance of Keynesian economics, the
wage-welfare system within a State-controlled, inflationary, debt-ridden
economy is the unquestioned model for economic development throughout the world.
The world needs the wisdom of
Fulton Sheen now more than ever. The republication of Freedom Under God helps introduce the work of this pivotal thinker
to a new generation of readers and students.
Fulton J. Sheen’s Freedom Under God, ISBN
978-0-944997-11-6, cover price $20.00, will soon be available on-line from
Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and by special order from selected other
bookstores. Quantity discounts are available for schools, churches, and civic
groups direct from the publisher.
Contact:
Michael D. Greaney
Publications [at] cesj [dot] org
4318 North 31st Street
Arlington, Virginia 22207
E-mail preferred