The Market as God

by Harvey Cox

Overview

“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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674241572
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	12/17/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Harvey Cox is Hollis Research Professor of Divinity at Harvard University.

Table of Contents

I Overview

1 The Market as God 3

2 Sciences, Regal and Divine 23

3 How The Market Became Divine 33

4 How The Market Creates People 47

5 Biblical Sources of Conflict over Usury and Phishing 69

6 Biblical Sources of Conflict over Redistribution 85

II Disorders and Infirmities

7 Top-Heavy Short Circuits 101

8 Big, Big Banks and Big, Big Churches 115

III History: Following the Money

9 The Bishop and the Monk: Augustine and Pelagius 131

10 Adam Smith: Founder and Patron Saint? 142

11 Adam Smith: Theologian and Prophet? 156

12 Banker, Philosopher, Trickster, Writer 176

13 The Breath of God and The Market Geist 186

14 "Go Ye into All the World" 197

15 The Liturgical Year of The Market 210

16 All Desires Known 232

17 The Market and the End of the World 244

18 Saving the Soul of The Market 256

Notes 281

Acknowledgments 295

Index 297

Editorial Reviews

Cox creatively transposes the concepts of theology into the language of capitalism and argues that the metaphors of theology, and religion itself, are being co-opted… The Market as God might be an example of what Bonhoeffer meant when he proposed that theologians had to learn to ‘speak of God in a secular fashion and find a nonreligious interpretation of biblical concepts,’ an approach Cox encouraged in 1965. In turn, market boosters are theologizing by casting the Market as a Tillichian ultimate concern and a wiser Cox has returned to interpret the signs of the times. The Market, like all human artifice, is neither natural nor neutral but an object of moral reflection, and in emotive prose Cox offers a moral inquiry into its attributes… Americans are searching for a social vision that serves people against the rule of the Market God, and the impassioned and timely Cox has reminded us of the moral challenges of our economic life.

New Rambler - Lilian Calles Barger

Through an astonishingly productive lifetime, Harvey Cox has always been alive to the most important movements of the spirit in our culture. His observations on the deification of the market and his 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. Like so many of the market’s critics, he’s also trying to redeem it so that it might serve its proper ends. An essential and thoroughly engaging book.

E. J. Dionne

The Market as God, like every book written by Harvey Cox, is stylishly winsome and socially relevant, brimming with Cox’s customary theological wit. There is a growing academic literature on how capitalism divinized the Market, but here the argument sings, with an underlying anger that sneaks up on you.

Gary Dorrien

Max Weber famously looked at religion through the prism of economics. Harvey Cox reverses the gaze and looks at economics through the prism of theology. In this very timely book, he formulates and then examines the equation Market = God in ways that are as original as they are brilliant.

Arvind Sharma

With flashes of brilliance and focused energy, Cox charts the ways in which the Market became Divine and even achieved human status through the form of the corporation.

Spirituality & Practice - Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Writing with his customary verve and insight, Harvey Cox sees The Market as very much a religious phenomenon. As he puts it, it has deified itself and become a god to people who worship it…Cox is good at using religious concepts to explain economic thinking.

Church of England Newspaper - Paul Richardson

The Market as God attempts to begin…challenging how political liberalism constrains moral and religious critiques from entering the public sphere, and how economic liberalism—by insisting the market holds primacy above all—constrains us from building a more just and equal society… By highlighting the limits of our economic and religious lives, and by reminding us of our powers to renovate our current world, Cox clears the space for a new generation of Christians to begin to develop a more public and egalitarian politics. And that alone is more than enough to be grateful for.

The Nation - Elizabeth Bruenig

With his expansive knowledge of history, theology and religious studies, [Cox] is well-positioned to offer insights and revelations regarding this chosen task… Cox makes a convincing argument that the deified Market has produced a web of values, narratives and institutions that need critical reexamination.

National Catholic Reporter - Melissa Jones

Through an astonishingly productive lifetime, Harvey Cox has always been alive to the most important movements of the spirit in our culture. His observations on the deification of the market and his 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. Like so many of the market’s critics, he’s also trying to redeem it so that it might serve its proper ends. An essential and thoroughly engaging book.
-- E. J. Dionne, Jr., author of Why the Right Went Wrong

The Market as God attempts to begin…challenging how political liberalism constrains moral and religious critiques from entering the public sphere, and how economic liberalism—by insisting the market holds primacy above all—constrains us from building a more just and equal society… By highlighting the limits of our economic and religious lives, and by reminding us of our powers to renovate our current world, Cox clears the space for a new generation of Christians to begin to develop a more public and egalitarian politics. And that alone is more than enough to be grateful for.
-- Elizabeth Bruenig The Nation

Cox creatively transposes the concepts of theology into the language of capitalism and argues that the metaphors of theology, and religion itself, are being co-opted… The Market as God might be an example of what Bonhoeffer meant when he proposed that theologians had to learn to ‘speak of God in a secular fashion and find a nonreligious interpretation of biblical concepts,’ an approach Cox encouraged in 1965. In turn, market boosters are theologizing by casting the Market as a Tillichian ultimate concern and a wiser Cox has returned to interpret the signs of the times. The Market, like all human artifice, is neither natural nor neutral but an object of moral reflection, and in emotive prose Cox offers a moral inquiry into its attributes… Americans are searching for a social vision that serves people against the rule of the Market God, and the impassioned and timely Cox has reminded us of the moral challenges of our economic life.
-- Lilian Calles Barger New Rambler

Writing with his customary verve and insight, Harvey Cox sees The Market as very much a religious phenomenon. As he puts it, it has deified itself and become a god to people who worship it…Cox is good at using religious concepts to explain economic thinking.
-- Paul Richardson Church of England Newspaper

With his expansive knowledge of history, theology and religious studies, [Cox] is well-positioned to offer insights and revelations regarding this chosen task… Cox makes a convincing argument that the deified Market has produced a web of values, narratives and institutions that need critical reexamination.
-- Melissa Jones National Catholic Reporter

With flashes of brilliance and focused energy, Cox charts the ways in which the Market became Divine and even achieved human status through the form of the corporation.
-- Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat Spirituality & Practice

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… Cox’s book is both timely and provocative.
-- Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The Market as God, like every book written by Harvey Cox, is stylishly winsome and socially relevant, brimming with Cox’s customary theological wit. There is a growing academic literature on how capitalism divinized the Market, but here the argument sings, with an underlying anger that sneaks up on you.
-- Gary Dorrien, author of Kantian Reason and Hegelian Spirit

Max Weber famously looked at religion through the prism of economics. Harvey Cox reverses the gaze and looks at economics through the prism of theology. In this very timely book, he formulates and then examines the equation Market = God in ways that are as original as they are brilliant.
-- Arvind Sharma, McGill University

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