The Routledge Handbook of Economic Theology

The Routledge Handbook of Economic Theology
Author: Stefan Schwarzkopf
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 820
Release: 2020-03-24
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1351973614

This Handbook introduces and systematically explores the thesis that the economy, economic practices and economic thought are of a profoundly theological nature. Containing more than 40 chapters, this Handbook provides a state-of-the-art reference work that offers students, researchers and policymakers an introduction to current scholarship, significant debates and emerging research themes in the study of the theological significance of economic concepts and the religious underpinnings of economic practices in a world that is increasingly dominated by financiers, managers, forecasters, market-makers and entrepreneurs. This Handbook brings together scholars from different parts of the world, representing various disciplines and intellectual traditions. It covers the development of economic thought and practices from antiquity to neoliberalism, and it provides insight into the economic–theological teachings of major religious movements. The list of contributors combines well-established scholars and younger academic talents. The chapters in this Handbook cover a wide array of conceptual, historical, theoretical and methodological issues and perspectives, such as the economic meaning of theological concepts (e.g. providence and faith); the theological underpinnings of economic concepts (e.g. credit and property); the religious significance of socio-economic practices in various organizational fields (e.g. accounting and work); and finally the genealogy of the theological–economic interface in Judaism, Christianity, Islam and in the discipline of economics itself (e.g. Marx, Keynes and Hayek). The Routledge Handbook of Economic Theology is organized in four parts: • Theological concepts and their economic meaning • Economic concepts and their theological anchoring • Society, management and organization • Genealogy of economic theology

Divine Economy

Divine Economy
Author: D. Stephen Long
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 622
Release: 2002-09-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1134588879

What has theology to do with economics? They are both sciences of human action, but have traditionally been treated as very separate disciplines. Divine Economy is the first book to address the need for an active dialogue between the two. D. Stephen Long traces three strategies which have been used to bring theology to bear on economic questions: the dominant twentieth-century tradition, of Weber's fact-value distinction; an emergent tradition based on Marxist social analysis; and a residual tradition that draws on an ancient understanding of a functional economy. He concludes that the latter approach shows the greatest promise because it refuses to subordinate theological knowledge to autonomous social-scientific research. Divine Economy will be welcomed by those with an interest in how theology can inform economic debate.

Economics as Religion

Economics as Religion
Author: Robert H. Nelson
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 437
Release: 2015-06-13
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0271066199

Robert Nelson’s Reaching for Heaven on Earth, Economics as Religion, and The New Holy Wars: Economic Religion Versus Environmental Religion in Contemporary America read almost like a trilogy, exploring and charting the boundaries of theology and economics from the Western foundations of ancient Greece through the traditions that Nelson identifies as “Protestant” and “Roman,” and on into modern economic forms such as Marxism and capitalism, as well as environmentalism. Nelson argues that economics can be a genuine form of religion and that it should inform our understanding of the religious developments of our times. This edition of Economics as Religion situates the influence of his work in the scholarly economic and theological conversations of today and reflects on the state of the economics profession and the potential implications for theology, economics, and other social sciences.

Adam's Fallacy

Adam's Fallacy
Author: Duncan K. Foley
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2009-06-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0674027078

This book could be called "The Intelligent Person's Guide to Economics." The title expresses Duncan Foley's belief that economics at its most abstract and interesting level is a speculative philosophical discourse, not a deductive or inductive science. Adam's fallacy is the attempt to separate the economic sphere of life, in which the pursuit of self-interest is led by the invisible hand of the market to a socially beneficial outcome, from the rest of social life, in which the pursuit of self-interest is morally problematic and has to be weighed against other ends.

The Economy of Desire (The Church and Postmodern Culture)

The Economy of Desire (The Church and Postmodern Culture)
Author: Daniel M. Jr. Bell
Publisher: Baker Books
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2012-11-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441240411

In this addition to the award-winning Church and Postmodern Culture series, respected theologian Daniel Bell compares and contrasts capitalism and Christianity, showing how Christianity provides resources for faithfully navigating the postmodern global economy. Bell approaches capitalism and Christianity as alternative visions of humanity, God, and the good life. Considering faith and economics in terms of how desire is shaped, he casts the conflict as one between different disciplines of desire. He engages the work of two important postmodern philosophers, Deleuze and Foucault, to illuminate the nature of the postmodern world that the church currently inhabits. Bell then considers how the global economy deforms desire in a manner that distorts human relations with God and one another. In contrast, he presents Christianity and the tradition of the works of mercy as a way beyond capitalism and socialism, beyond philanthropy and welfare. Christianity heals desire, renewing human relations and enabling communion with God.

No Rising Tide

No Rising Tide
Author: Joerg Rieger
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2009-09-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 145141112X

Economics has always had a moral dimension; even free-market mascot Adam Smith was a Christian minister. Yet recent events have renewed and recast theological reflection on the economy as the gospel of prosperity succumbs to large-scale economic crisis. In that light Joerg Rieger explores the many dimensions of today's economic crisis. What are the fundamental shifts taking place in the global economy today, and how are they affecting provision for basic human needs, economic equity, and people's prospects?

Political Economy as Natural Theology

Political Economy as Natural Theology
Author: Paul Oslington
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 164
Release: 2017-07-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1351686038

Since the early 20th century, economics has been the dominant discourse in English-speaking countries, displacing Christian theology from its previous position of authority. This path-breaking book is a major contribution to the interdisciplinary dialogue between economics and religion. Oslington tells the story of natural theology shaping political economy in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, emphasising continuing significance of theological issues for the discipline of economics. Early political economists such as Adam Smith, Josiah Tucker, Edmund Burke, William Paley, TR Malthus, Richard Whately, JB Sumner, Thomas Chalmers and William Whewell, extended the British scientific natural theology tradition of Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton to the social world. This extension nourished and shaped political economy as a discipline, influencing its theoretical framework, but perhaps more importantly helping legitimate political economy in the British universities and public policy circles. Educating the public in the principles of political economy had a central place in this religiously driven program. Natural theology also created tensions (especially reconciling economic suffering with divine goodness and power) that eventually contributed to its demise and the separation of economics from theology in mid-19th-century Britain. This volume highlights aspects of the story that are neglected in standard histories of economics, histories of science and contemporary theology. Political Economy as Natural Theology is essential reading for all concerned with the origins of economics, the meaning and purpose of economic activity and the role of religion in contemporary policy debates.

The New Holy Wars

The New Holy Wars
Author: Robert H. Nelson
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2010
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780271035826

The present debate raging over global warming exemplifies the clash of two public theologies. On one side, environmentalists warn of certain catastrophe if we do not take steps now to reduce the release of greenhouse gases; on the other side, economists are concerned with whether the benefits of actions to prevent higher temperatures will be worth the high costs. Robert Nelson interprets such contemporary struggles as battles between the competing secularized religions of economics and environmentalism. The outcome will have momentous consequences for us all. This book probes beneath the surface of the two movements' rhetoric to uncover their fundamental theological commitments and visions. Book jacket.

Theology of Money

Theology of Money
Author: Philip Goodchild
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2009-06-22
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0822392550

Theology of Money is a philosophical inquiry into the nature and role of money in the contemporary world. Philip Goodchild reveals the significance of money as a dynamic social force by arguing that under its influence, moral evaluation is subordinated to economic valuation, which is essentially abstract and anarchic. His rigorous inquiry opens into a complex analysis of political economy, encompassing markets and capital, banks and the state, class divisions, accounting practices, and the ecological crisis awaiting capitalism. Engaging with Christian theology and the thought of Carl Schmitt, Georg Simmel, Karl Marx, Adam Smith, and many others, Goodchild develops a theology of money based on four contentions, which he elaborates in depth. First, money has no intrinsic value; it is a promise of value, a crystallization of future hopes. Second, money is the supreme value in contemporary society. Third, the value of assets measured by money is always future-oriented, dependent on expectations about how much might be obtained for those assets at a later date. Since this value, when realized, will again depend on future expectations, the future is forever deferred. Financial value is essentially a degree of hope, expectation, trust, or credit. Fourth, money is created as debt, which involves a social obligation to work or make profits to repay the loan. As a system of debts, money imposes an immense and irresistible system of social control on individuals, corporations, and governments, each of whom are threatened by economic failure if they refuse their obligations to the money system. This system of debt has progressively tightened its hold on all sectors and regions of global society. With Theology of Money, Goodchild aims to make conscious our collective faith and its dire implications.

The Spirit of French Capitalism

The Spirit of French Capitalism
Author: Charly Coleman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2021
Genre: Capitalism
ISBN: 9781503614826

"This book offers a new take on why, in the West, the economy has become synonymous with a belief in the creation of infinite wealth. It does so by turning to the long-suppressed role played by the Catholic Church in the development of capitalism in 18th-century France. Then a dominant and highly influential power, France was rocked by intellectual tumult and confessional clashes, as well as consumer and political revolutions. The church functioned as a de facto state bank, and its clerics thought deeply and extensively about financial matters. Charly Coleman argues that these theologians' long neglected writings show a convergence of economic thought grounded in theological concepts --- what he terms "economic theology" --- whether in managing the debt of sin or marshaling the infinite wealth of divine grace. A counterpart of sorts to Max Weber's famous thesis on The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, the case here is made for a distinctly Catholic ethic, one that has animated the spirit of capitalism from its inception. The influence of sacramental theory demonstrates that at its core modern economic understanding does not adhere neatly to rational action or disenchanted designs, and in ways that scholars have yet to apprehend fully. Even during the Enlightenment, a sense of the miraculous did not wither away in the cold light of calculation. Rather, it emerged anew as a faith invested in the limitless, endlessly creative expansion of the economic realm"--