Send Lazarus: Catholicism and the Crises of Neoliberalism

by Matthew T. Eggemeier, Peter Joseph Fritz

Overview

Today’s regnant global economic and cultural system, neoliberal capitalism, demands that life be led as a series of sacrifices to the market. Send Lazarus’s theological critique wends its way through four neoliberal crises: environmental destruction, slum proliferation, mass incarceration, and mass deportation, all while plumbing the sacrificial and racist depths of neoliberalism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823288007
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	05/05/2020
Series:	Catholic Practice in North America
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Matthew T. Eggemeier is Professor of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross. He is the author of A Sacramental-Prophetic Vision: Christian Spirituality in a Suffering World and Against Empire: Ekklesial Resistance and the Politics of Radical Democracy.

Peter Joseph Fritz is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross. He is author of Karl Rahner’s Theological Aesthetics and Freedom Made Manifest: Rahner’s Fundamental Option and Theological Aesthetics.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations | ix

Introduction | 1
Introducing Neoliberalism, 2 • Catholic Critique of Neoliberalism, 4 •
Chapter Outlines, 7 • Send Lazarus, 11

Part I : Catholic Social Thought and the Economy

1 Catholic Social Thought against Economism | 15
Modern Catholic Social Thought, 17 • John Paul II on
Economism, 20 • Benedict XVI: Against an Impersonal
Economy, 33 • Francis: No to a Faceless Economy, 46 •
Papal Continuity, 56

Part II: Neoliberalism

2 Neoliberal Capitalism | 65
Neoliberalism as PoliticalEconomy, 66 •
Neoliberalism as Common Sense, 76 •
Ethos of Mercilessness, 86

3 Sacrifice, Race, and Indifference | 94
Sacrifice Zones, Earth, and Slums, 96 • Racial Neoliberalism,
Mass Incarceration, and Mass Deportation, 110 •
Neoliberalism as Culture of Indifference, 123

Part III: Catholic Mercy in a Neoliberal Age

4 A Theology of Mercy | 133
Trinity, Mystery, and Mercy, 134 • Anthropology, Ecclesiology,
and Mercy, 144 • The Works and the Politics of Mercy, 153

5 The Politics of Mercy against Neoliberal Sacrifice | 164
Universal Destination of Goods, 165 • Visit the Sick, 167 •
Give Food, Drink, and Clothing, 175 • Abolitionism, 180 •
Ransom the Captive, 188 • Welcome the Stranger, 195

Conclusion: For Holistic Mercy | 205

Acknowledgments| 209

Notes | 211

Bibliography | 245

Index | 269

Editorial Reviews

[T]his book is required reading for those interested in theological responses to neoliberalism or concerned with social injustice. Highly recommended.

Choice

This book is one of the best theological engagements with economics available. The critique of neoliberalism is spot-on: It is a type of class warfare that does not shrink the state but empowers it to protect the market from the people. The market is sublime and cannot be controlled by people. Neoliberalism is thus a type of theology for a deified market, and Eggemeier and Fritz respond with a compelling Christian theology of a God who wants mercy, not sacrifice. If you want a vision of a world beyond today’s suffering and inequality, read this book.—William T. Cavanaugh, DePaul University

From the Publisher

This book is one of the best theological engagements with economics available. The critique of neoliberalism is spot-on: It is a type of class warfare that does not shrink the state but empowers it to protect the market from the people. The market is sublime and cannot be controlled by people. Neoliberalism is thus a type of theology for a deified market, and Eggemeier and Fritz respond with a compelling Christian theology of a God who wants mercy, not sacrifice. If you want a vision of a world beyond today’s suffering and inequality, read this book.

William T. Cavanaugh