The social teaching of the Roman Catholic Church has aroused publicinterest in recent years with the increased involvement of North American bishops in matters of civic morality, with the growth of liberation theology in Central and South America, and with the ongoing political and economic statements of Pope John Paul II. A vital ingredient of Roman Catholic social teaching is the papal encyclical literature. Debate grows, however, over exactly what the papal letters teach. Noteworthy encyclical commentaries exist, but none has attempted a comprehensive historical analysis of the complete content and overall coherence of Roman Catholic encyclical social teaching. This book, appearing in advance of the 1991 centennial of "Rerum novarum", provides the kind of analysis that concerned Roman Catholics, public officials, social ethicists, theologians and students are looking for: a textually inclusive and topically broad-gauged study of Catholic social teaching in its historical development with a forthright assessment of the teaching's contradictions and consistencies.