Sin and the economic analysis of the pastoral: A class act?

The Pastoral contains a non-Marxist class based non-traditional analysis of sinful acts in economic life. Data on poverty, income distribution, unemployment and economic problems are used to assert the existence of a marginalyzed, economically disenfranchised class, victims of the sinful self-serving actions of individuals influential in economic and political institutions. Economic scarcity, the reality of risk, conflicting policy goals, imperfect economic policy insights, mistaken choices, and the consequences of sinful acts for the sinner are ignored as possible causes of imperfect economic outcomes as the bishops advocate solutions through an expanded agenda of government programs and power.James P. Egan is Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Wisconsin — Eau Claire. He was awarded a faculty research sabbatical in 1986.