Catholic Social Doctrine and its Position on the Left-right Scale

The first part of the submitted essay represents a kind of a historical- philosophical excurse. It deals with a sample of thinkers, political movements and parties, church or sectarian groupings and streams that can be labeled with the term "leftist Christians" (Campanella, Tillich, Anabaptists, the Theology of Liberation and so on). At the same time the opposite postures of "right-wing Christians" are described, especially those of the contemporary renowned catholic political philosopher Michael Novak. The second part of this bachelor thesis focuses on the catholic social doctrine itself, as it has been developing since the publication of the papal social encyclical Rerum novarum at the end of the 19th century. The content and main principles of the following encyclicals are analyzed. Separate, although short chapter is dedicated to the last social encyclical Centesimus annus from 1991. The aim of the thesis is to "localize" catholic social doctrine on the traditional political left-right scale; it means to highlight its similarities and differences with liberal, conservative and socialist ideology and their corresponding economic models. On this issue we came to the conclusion that the cardinal rules of catholic social doctrine (solidarity, preferential option for the poor, priority of work..