The Economy of Desire (The Church and Postmodern Culture): Christianity and Capitalism in a Postmodern World

by Daniel M. Jr. Bell, James Smith

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441240415
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/01/2012
Series:	The Church and Postmodern Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Pages:	224
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Daniel M. Bell Jr. (PhD, Duke University) is professor of theological ethics at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina. He is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church and the author of Just War as Christian Discipleship and Liberation Theology after the End of History.

Table of Contents

Introduction: What Has Paris to Do with Jerusalem?
1. The Multitude: The Micropolitics of Desire
2. Capital Desire: Capitalism as an Economy of Desire
3. What Is Wrong with Capitalism?
4. Capitalist Theology: The Agony of Capitalist Desire
5. Is Another Economy Possible? The Church as an Economy of Desire
6. The Economy of Salvation
7. Christian Economics
8. The Work of Mercy
Conclusion: Dishonest Wealth, Friends, and Eternal Homes
Index