Although a Lutheran, Roepke was highly impressed with the social encyclicals of the popes. Today in America we are experiencing a cultural collapse comparable to those which in the past have ushered in tyrannies elsewhere. The causes of that collapse may not yet be fully understood. A great deal could be accomplished by changing laws to encourage smaller-scaled enterprises. Perhaps this would slow down, if not reverse, our cultural decay.
Capitalism seems quintessentially masculine.
It rewards initiative, aggressiveness, competitiveness and single-minded devotion to work. The saints too, show us how critical is this receptivity. Their conduct, while creative and efficacious, was always in response to prayer and self-denial. They always understood how little of what they accomplished was from their own resources and how much was grace working in their lives. Surely this suggests a more radical approach than merely tempering the abuses of capitalism.