From Catholic Social Thought to Catholic Economics and Back: António Almodovar’s interest into an unexpected subject

Abstract

In the last decade of his career before his untimely death, António Almodovar’s research was very much dominated by an interest in catholic economic thought, apparently an unexpected development in his career. However, it fitted his broader approach to the history of economics, which presented a strong emphasis on the dissemination of economic ideas as in his previous work on the institutionalization of political economy or in the parliamentary debates or in textbooks. His interest in the overlap between religious and economic thought also corresponded to a reflection about the boundaries of economic thought and their evolution.En la última década de su carrera antes de su inesperada muerte, la investigación de António Almodovar estuvo dominada por su interés en el pensamiento económico católico, aparentemente una derivación inesperada en su trayectoria. Sin embargo, encajaba en su enfoque más amplio de la historia de economía, que enfatizaba la diseminación de ideas económicas como en su trabajo anterior sobre la institucionalización de economía política o de los debates parlamentarios o manuales. Su interés por la relación entre el pensamiento religioso y económico también responde a una reflexión sobre las fronteras del pensamiento económico y su evolución.