New Financial Horizons: The Emergence of an Economy of Communion

Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Economy of Communion ‘Gold examines the origins and substance of a promising alternative to the current globalized economy. During a 1991 trip to Brazil, Chiara Lubich challenged Focolare members to launch businesses that could create jobs and opportunities. Almost twenty years later, Benedict XVI cited the Economy of Communion in Caritas in Veritate as a promising form of intermediate activity between for-profit business and classic non-profit institutions. John L. Allen Jr. 'What Gold has provided - is a theologically grounded understanding of a robust culture that has the capacity to engage the whole human person as a unity to overcome the divisive effects of a fragmented and divided self in economic life. It not only tells the story of the Economy of Communion, but it provides a model for entrepreneurs and managers who are interested in building communities of work and not merely nexuses of exchange. It is a book that should be widely read in the U.S., especially in the academy, which too often lacks such integrative and interdisciplinary analysis between theoretical visions and practical experience.’ Michael J. Naughton Moss Chair of Catholic Social Thought University of St. Thomas, MN