Abstract
Catholic social teaching has long affirmed the existence of sinful social structures but without describing them or how they operate. This article reviews magisterial teaching on sinful social structures and turns to critical realist sociology for an analysis of structures as having causal influence through the free choices of persons within them. Theologically, social structures (whether markets or parishes) can be “sinful” in an analogous sense, similar to original sin. A typology of inclusive and extractive economic institutions exemplifies how this analysis can apply to sinful social structures today.
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