Catholic Social Teaching and Genesis 1

Catholic Social Teaching begins with the idea that the human person is the end (telos) and purpose of every social organization. This is rooted in the teaching of Genesis 1:26-28:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Creation is a gift to man given to realize the full flourishing of human life under the loving reign of the Triune God. Hence, government and society as a species of the mandate to fill and subdue the earth, exist to realize a just expression of the common good that enables all people to realize their humanity as created by God.