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Visiting scholars debate economic inequality, Catholic social teaching

They are both Catholic. They are both economists. But they disagree on how to solve economic inequality and how to apply Catholic social teaching to the problem.

Andrew M. Yuengert, Ph.D., a professor of Economics at Pepperdine University, and Charles Michael Andres Clark, Ph.D., a professor of Economics at St. John's University, will participate in two public debates on economic inequality and how to apply Catholic social teaching at Benedictine University.

The two will spar on "Economic Inequality: Two Perspectives" at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5, and on "Two Approaches to Catholic Social Teaching" at 12:20 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6. Both debates are in Room 112 of Birck Hall on campus, 5700 College Road, Lisle. Admission is free.

Yuengert is the Blanche E. Seaver Professor of Social Science and a professor of economics at Pepperdine University's Seaver College. He has taught economics at Pepperdine since 1994.

His research has contributed to several fields, including philosophy, Catholic social teaching, the empirical study of religion, labor economics and finance.

Prior to Pepperdine, Yuengert was a research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He is a former president of the Association of Christian Economists and edited its journal, Faith & Economics. He is the author of "Approximating Prudence: Aristotelian Practical Wisdom and Economic Models of Choice."

Clark is a senior fellow at the Vincentian Center for Church and Society and a professor of economics at St. John's University.

Author of more than 120 publications on Catholic social thought, poverty and income inequality, economic policy and the history of economic thought, Clark was a delegate for the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations during the high-level conference on the financial crisis, and was recently added as an adviser to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on International Justice and Peace.

He is working with Catholic Relief Services and University of Dayton's Human Rights Center on forced labor/modern slavery in Brazil.

The Visiting Scholar in Catholic Thought Series is sponsored by the department of history, philosophy and religious studies and the Center for Mission and Identity at Benedictine University.

If you go

What: Debates on economic inequality and Catholic social teaching

When: "Economic Inequality: Two Perspectives" at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5; "Two Approaches to Catholic Social Teaching" at 12:20 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 6

Where: Room 112 of Birck Hall at Benedictine University, 5700 College Road, Lisle

Cost: Free

Info: (630) 829-6263

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