The False Pretensions of the Catholic Social Doctrine—The Critique of the Catholic Austrian Sociologist August M. Knoll (1900–1963)

The Austrian Catholic sociologist August M. Knoll challenged the pretension of the hierarchy to be the supreme authority in questions of economic and social order. The theological foundations of the Catholic Church and the scholastic natural law solve the Social Question only insofar as it is a religious and moral question, but not in as far as it is a question of sociology, of social technique, of organization of the economy. The legitimacy of the Church to decide on social issues does not go beyond a “minimal program to guard against excesses in the social sphere”. In his book Der soziale Gedanke im modernen Katholizismus (1932) Knoll follows the development of the Catholic social doctrine from the foundation of the Church. He demonstrates the flexibility of the Church by which it has been able to adapt to a variety of different social systems, from the slave economy to 19th century capitalism. The contribution also locates Knoll’s position in the debate between the conservative-Catholic and the liberal-Catholic school of thought in Austria and in Germany. In his last book Katholische Kirche und scholastisches Naturrecht Knoll took a sharply critical position towards the misuse of scholastic natural law by the hierarchy as apology of existing social conditions by confirming their compatibility with natural law, and towards the clerical hierarchy for upholding false pretensions of Catholic social doctrine in order to hedge its social and political privileges. To break through the false pretensions of the Church and its clergy, Knoll calls for a different conception of Christendom. Whereas, according to the official Catholic doctrine the order of the clergy is superior to the order of the laymen, giving the former the decisive voice not only in spiritual matters, but also in worldly matters, Knoll calls for a “dualism of the two orders”, with the focus on the lay with respect to worldly issues.