Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Proper Nomenclature

Home
Catholic
Dorothy Day: Distributist, Socialist, or Anarchist?

Dorothy Day: Distributist, Socialist, or Anarchist?

Last updated on: January 17, 2016 at 2:02 pm by Keith Michael Estrada

Dorothy Day: Distributist, Socialist, or Anarchist? 2016-01-17T14:02:36-07:00 Keith Michael Estrada

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Dorothy Day in 1934. This image was originally posted to Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dorothy_Day_1934.jpg. It is in the public domain.

The Servant of God Dorothy Day embraced distributism.

The Servant of God Dorothy Day embraced socialism.

The Servant of God Dorothy Day embraced anarchism.

Over the weekend, let’s consider how every statement above is true. So I’ll just drop a few lines to encourage your thought these next few days.

I’ll help with the following:

Day recommended and identified with distributism as proposed by Chesterton and Belloc.

Day saw the work of Peter Kropotkin on anarchism and economic social organization as “much the same” as what the English Distributists supported. She considered Distributism to be the English form of anarchism. She identified with and used anarchism as Proudhon used it, and was inspired by Tolstoi’s anarchism. Nevertheless, she did see that many misunderstood the term in the way she, Kropotkin, and Proudhon used it.

Lastly, anarchism as Proudhon and Kropotkin used it was a type of socialism. We can consider Henri de Lubac’s “The Un-Marxian Socialist” on Proudhon in addition to Kropotkin’s definition of anarchism as “the no-government system of socialism” where we find the rejection of the modern state and capitalism. Day’s difficulty with socialism was limited to the socialism Catholics have always rejected: Marxian, Atheistic, Totalitarian. (See here for more.)

Enjoy your weekend, you socialist, distributist, anarchist anti-capitalist Catholic*, you!

Sincerely,

Keith Michael Estrada

*The anti capitalist should be implied by “Catholic” but is used here for those who are unfamiliar with this.

Capitalism

Catholic Social Teaching

Keith Michael Estrada

Previous Post

January 14, 2016

John Paul II: If You Want Priestly Vocations, Reject Capitalism

Next Post

January 17, 2016 Sharing Dr. King's "Dream" - For a Price

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Benedict XVI Canada Capital Punishment Capitalism Care for Creation Catholic Committee of Appalachia Catholic News Catholic Social Teaching Catholic Tradition - Art Catholic Worker Catholic Worker Inspirations CST in 140 Characters or Less Diocese of San Diego Faithful Citizenship Father Frank Pavone Chronicles Fathers, Mothers, Saints, and Doctors Francis Guest Posts Gun Violence Humor, Parody, and/or Satire Interfaith Dialogue John Eudes John Paul II Marriage and Family Migration New Evangelization News Not a formal post. Our Lady of Guadalupe Paul VI Popes Pro-Life Racial Justice Releases Religious Freedom Repeat/Repost Saints Socialism Thomas Aquinas Uncategorized

Select a Month March 2020 July 2019 June 2018 May 2018 March 2018 December 2017 October 2017 September 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 April 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Christian symbol looks like a fish and spells "ichthys" in Greek?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The anchor The Jesus Fish The triangle The dove