The Market as God
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- 23,99 €
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- 23,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
“Essential and thoroughly engaging…Harvey Cox’s ingenious sense of how market theology has developed a scripture, a liturgy, and sophisticated apologetics allow us to see old challenges in a remarkably fresh light.”
—E. J. Dionne, Jr.
We have fallen in thrall to the theology of supply and demand. According to its acolytes, the Market is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. It can raise nations and ruin households, and comes complete with its own doctrines, prophets, and evangelical zeal. Harvey Cox brings this theology out of the shadows, demonstrating that the way the world economy operates is shaped by a global system of values that can be best understood as a religion.
Drawing on biblical sources and the work of social scientists, Cox points to many parallels between the development of Christianity and the Market economy. It is only by understanding how the Market reached its “divine” status that can we hope to restore it to its proper place as servant of humanity.
“Cox argues that…we are now imprisoned by the dictates of a false god that we ourselves have created. We need to break free and reclaim our humanity.”
—Forbes
“Cox clears the space for a new generation of Christians to begin to develop a more public and egalitarian politics.”
—The Nation
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Over 50 years ago, Cox anticipated the cultural turn away from religion and toward secularism in his classic work, The Secular City (1965). In this exceptional book, he now turns his attention to economics and theology. In 2013, Pope Francis remarked in Evangelii Gaudium that the environment stands defenseless against a "deified market." With typical brilliance, Cox takes up the pope's words and examines in sparkling detail the features of the market as a religion. "The diviners and seers of The Market's methods are the financial consultants and CEOs of major investment houses," he writes. Like God, the market is seen as omniscient; through its diverse set of marketing tools, it searches our every desire and develops products to satisfy them. God's purpose (according to Cox) in knowing the desires of our hearts is to make us capable of love of God and others; the market's "purpose is to multiply sales." The market also operates according to a liturgical year: Black Friday, Christmas, Mother's Day. Cox is also quick to point out that banks mimic some contemporary megachurches: "The Market's edifices can also reflect those of religious culture." The church can be restored, he argues, through a process of democratization and dismantling the temples of the market. Cox's book is both timely and provocative.