The Protestant Ethic or the Spirit of Capitalism: Christians, Freedom, and Free Markets

by Kathryn D. Blanchard

Overview

Since the publication of Max Weber's classic, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, it has long been assumed that a distinctly Protestant ethos has shaped the current global economic order. Against this common consensus, Kathryn D. Blanchard argues that the theological thought of John Calvin and the Protestant movement as a whole has much to say that challenges the current incarnation of the capitalist order. This book develops an approach to Christian economic ethics that celebrates God's gift of human freedom, while at the same time acknowledging necessary, and indeed vital, limitations in the context of material and social life. Through sustained interaction with such unlikely dialogue partners as Adam Smith, Milton Friedman, Deirdre McCloskey, and Muhammad Yunus, this book shows that the virtues of self-denial, neighbor love, and sympathy have been quite at home in the capitalism of the past, and can be again. Though self-interest has enjoyed several decades as the unquestioned ruling principle of American economics, other-interest is steadily coming back into view, not only among Christian ethicists, but among economists as well. This book explores the important implications of this shift in economic thinking from a theological perspective.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781621890690
Publisher:	Cascade Books
Publication date:	07/06/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	262
File size:	814 KB

About the Author

Kathryn D. Blanchard is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Alma College in Alma, Michigan. She is the author of several articles on economic and sexual ethics.
Kathryn D. Blanchard is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Alma College in Michigan. She is the author of The Protestant Ethic or the Spirit of Capitalism (Cascade, 2010).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction xi

1 Children, Not Slaves: John Calvin on Human Beings, Law, and Freedom 1

2 "We Are Not Our Own": Christian Freedom in Calvin's Humane Economy 32

3 Love Yourself as Your Neighbor Loves You: Adam Smith and Freedom for Sympathy 54

4 Splitting the Adam: Frank Knight's Division of the Human Being 91

5 "The Charming Conceit": Chicago Economics and the End of Freedom as an End 122

6 Expanding the Conversation: Possible Steps Toward More Virtuous Market Economies 163

Conclusion: Economic Freedom as Sympathetically Self-Interested Service 212

Bibliography 221

Index 229