Prophetic mission of christian social thought in the digital age

Abstract

The Catholic Church has developed fundamentally throughout the last decades,
a significant contribution to the reflection on how to build political, economic and
social relations based on the values of the Gospel, for the well-being of minkind. In
1967, Pope Paul VI published the encyclical letter Populorum Progressio in which
he explained the conditions, from the perspective of the Church, so that a true
development can take place, indicating that “in order for it to be authentic it must
be integral, for the whole man and of all men ”(n. 14). Since the publication of this
letter there have been significant changes in the business world, especially in
relation to globalization and the advent of the so-called digital era. However, the
deep keys of the proposal of Paul VI, of other texts of the Social Doctrine of the
Church and of Christian anthropology, remain current. Christian social thought’s
mission is to illuminate, as a prophecy, human action in this environment, which
undergoes faster and faster transformations. This study aims to offer, from the
Christian perspective, some keys that can serve as a guide for decision making,
especially for the business environment, in times of changes and uncertainties
of the so-called digital era. As a result, the article offers three proposals for
the promotion of integral human development in the aforementioned context:
unmasking ideologies, offering a clear model of a human being open to
transcendence and fostering intergenerational cooperation.