Contents

Preface

Chapter 1. No Rising Tide: Religion, Economics, and Empire

No Rising Tide  •  Religion and Economics  •  Economics with the Soul of a Church  •  Market Fundamentalism  •  Religion, Economics, and Empire  •  Dead Ends and Alternatives

Chapter 2. The Logic of Downturn: Class Matters in Religion and Economics

Downturn as the Rule  •  Class Matters in Economics and Religion  •  Growing Inequality: Some Numbers  •  Religion, Economics, and Class  •  The Logic of Downturn and the Future of Religion

Chapter 3. God and the Free-Market Economy

What Gives Us Hope  •  Invisible Hands  •  Transcendence of the Market  •  Contemporary Consequences  •  “Idealism”  •  What Is Ultimate? Who Is God?

Chapter 4. Consuming Desire vs. Resisting Desire

That to Which Your Heart Clings  •  Is Consumerism Really the Problem?  •  The Produced Nature of Desire  •  Religion, Labor, and Resisting Desire  •  To Each According to Their Need

Chapter 5. Rethinking God and the World

Implicit and Explicit Theology: Beyond Ethics  •  Religion and Economics, Upside Down  •  Justice in Economics and Religion  •  Religion, Freedom, and Private Property  •  Gaining New Hope

Conclusion. The Turning of the Tide: Theology, Religion, and Economics

Alternatives  •  The Common Good  •  Constructive Critical Theology and Economics

Notes

Index