Encyclical Rerum Novarum and Christian economic ethics

This article shows one of the key points in the formation of Christian economic ethics. It seems that such a key moment is the Encyclical Rerum Novarum written by Pope Leo XIII and published in 1891. It had a tremendous influence both on the formation of the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, as the largest Christian denomination, and on the development of socio-economic relations in the world as a whole. One of the topical aspects of the study of the meaning of this document is its inherent tendency towards convergence with the socio-economic ideology of Protestantism and the formation of a single Christian economic ethics. The purpose of this article is to substantiate the significance of Rerum Novarum as a turn of Catholicism towards convergence with Protestantism in the field of socio-economic doctrine. The main methods are the methods of systems analysis, induction and deduction.Conclusion: by publishing this encyclical, the Catholic Church successfully attempted to eliminate its lag behind Protestantism in the development of economic ethics and real church socio-economic policy. Moreover, the encyclical Rerum Novarum, according to the principle of cumulativism, encouraged Protestants to continue their activities in this direction, which was expressed, for example, in the emergence of the ideology of neo-Calvinism. As a result, the beginning of a unified Christian economic ethics was laid.