ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to sketch in rough outline how apophaticism might be applied to political economy. Theology is a method, a way of ascent that leads from baptism through a life of asceticism ultimately to the contemplation of that which is beyond all rational comprehension. The Christian Church has experienced much the same historical journey. Augustine's contrast between the City of God and the City of Man, the first sustained Christian reflection on politics and the meaning of history, was inspired by the news of the Visigoth sack of the Eternal City. Indeed, Aristotle was probably the first person to make a comparative study of extant political constitutions, a practical outworking of his hylomorphism. Those familiar with modern Roman Catholic social theory will have anticipated the strong resemblance between Jeffersonian Agrarianism and the concepts of subsidiarity and distributism.
