ABSTRACT
The original contradiction understood as the paradox of the Catholic ethic actively engaging with global capitalism and defined by a macro socio-economic backdrop of Tiger economic performance, relatively low levels of secularisation and accidental development can now be re-evaluated. The chapter regenerates the relevance and durability of sociological insights into a new synthesis and presented as A Theory of Limits. By contrast in both Irish Catholic and in some Islamic cultures this rational and scientific force has not dominated the spiritual arena. The chapter shows that Catholicism evokes an instrumental rationalism that seeks both enjoyment of this life through acquiring enough wealth and the application of a Spirit of Charity in daily and economic life to acquire spiritual well-being. C. Handy attempts to define a Theory of Limits that would incorporate this enough principle. He argues that the lower the target of enough the higher the level of freedom that would be experienced by the individual.
