Shows how economics functions as the dominant religion in America today In this provocative book Scott Gustafson argues that economics functions in our current global culture as religions have functio
Shows how economics functions as the dominant religion in America today
In this provocative book Scott Gustafson argues that economics functions in our current global culture as religions have functioned in other cultures. He describes and analyzes the rituals, pilgrimage sites, myths, prophets, sacraments, and mission of Economics to show how the Economy is our de facto God. Discussing such topics as debt, economic terrorism, globalization, and money as the Economy's sacrament, Gustafson's At the Altar of Wall Street encompasses a broad sweep of history, philosophy, culture studies, economic ideas, and religion in its trenchant analysis.
Catholic Books Review
"An excellent review and critique of our current economic system's sacred and unquestionable beliefs and activities. . . . Provocative."
Ethical Perspectives
"A stimulating and well-written meditation about how economics functions in our current global culture."
Harvey Cox (author of The Secular City)
— Harvard Divinity School
"It is daily becoming more clear that consumer capitalism is not just an economic system. It is a fully developed culture and, as Gustafson shows in this skillfully researched book, a full-blown religion. Replete with its own rituals, doctrines, sacraments, and theology, Economics has become the most powerful alternative to Christianity, all the more threatening because few people recognize its spiritual pretensions. No one who reads this extraordinary account will be able to think about religion or economics in the same way again."
Robert H. Nelson (author of Economics as Religion)
— Independent Institute
"In this intriguing book Scott Gustafson applies a new theological lens to American public life. Religion has always addressed political and economic affairs, but now, as he explains, economics actually is our religion. Gustafson shows that much conventional wisdom about the workings of American society is based on `secular' economic myth and illusion, and he insightfully explores how religion today has put on an economic disguise."
Christian Century
"Gustafson incisively lays bare our faith that capitalism will simultaneously make us rich and save us from the moral and material excesses of those riches."
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Scott W. Gustafson has served as a seminary professor and a Lutheran (ELCA) pastor for over thirty years. Currently an independent stock-market investor in Herndon, Virginia, he has also written Biblical Amnesia: A Forgotten Story of Redemption and Behind Good and Evil: How to Overcome the Death-Dealing Character of Morality.
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