Islamic Social Teaching and <i>Cathonomics</i>

Islamic analogues to Catholic social teachings are presented for the first time in this article, which examines Anthony Annett’s ten concrete principles for socio-economic action in his Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy from an Islamic perspective. While all ten of Annett’s principles are laudable from this perspective, his principle of “integral human development” remains underdeveloped from an Islamic point of view, because he does not adequately distinguish between “holistic work”, which fulfills a hierarchy of spiritual and other needs and “deformed work”, which does not. This lacuna undermines one’s ability to adequately: (1) distinguish between an Islamic and Catholic economy and industrial capitalism and socialism; (2) critique industrial capitalism and socialism from an Islamic or Catholic perspective, particularly regarding the environmental crisis, and (3) draw the (devastating) implications of this for modern mainstream economic theory. This omission therefore represents the “Achilles heel” of Annett’s otherwise erudite book.