Download or read book The Church and the Market written by Thomas E. Woods and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2015-01-15 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Church and the Market is a vigorous and lively defense of the market economy and a withering attack on all forms of state intervention. It covers labor unions, monopoly, money and banking, business cycles, interest, usury, and much more. Although it makes a particular point of noting the moral arguments of the market economy and that Catholics are of course perfectly at liberty to support it, its audience is much broader than Catholics alone. Readers of all religious traditions and none at all have praised The Church and the Market, first-place winner in the 2006 Templeton Enterprise Awards, as one of the most compelling and persuasive defenses of capitalism against its critics ever written.
Download or read book Defending the Free Market written by Robert Sirico and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-05-21 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirty years ago, the economic system of the Soviet empire—socialism—seemed definitively discredited. Today, the most popular figures in the Democratic Party embrace it, while the shapers of public opinion treat capitalism as morally indefensible. Is there a moral case for capitalism? Consumerism is an appalling spectacle. Free markets may be efficient, but are they fair? Aren’t there some things that we can’t afford to leave to the vicissitudes of the market? Robert Sirico, a onetime leftist, shows how a free economy—including private property, legally enforceable contracts, and prices and interest rates freely agreed to by the parties to a transaction—is the best way to meet society’s material needs. In fact, the free market has lifted millions out of dire poverty—far more people than state welfare or private charity has ever rescued from want. But efficiency isn’t its only virtue. Economic freedom is indispensable for the other freedoms we prize. And it’s not true that it makes things more important than people—just the reverse. Only if we have economic rights can we protect ourselves from government encroachment into the most private areas of our lives—including our consciences. Defending the Free Market is a powerful vindication of capitalism and a timely warning for a generation flirting with disaster.
Download or read book The Market as God written by Harvey Cox and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-12 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “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
Download or read book Faithonomics written by Torkel Brekke and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Does anyone have a monopoly on God? Can religion be bought or sold? Why do we pay priests? How do we limit religious conflicts? And should states get involved in matters of faith? "Faithonomics" shows that religion should be analyzed as a market similar to those for other goods and services, like bottled water or haircuts. It is about religion today, but Brekke shows us that there have always been religious markets, all over the world, regulated to a greater or lesser degree. He argues that state "control" over religious markets is often the cause of unforeseen and negative consequences. Many of today's problems like religious terrorism or rent-seeking by religious political parties, are easier to understand if we think like economists. Religious markets work best when they are relatively free, and religious organizations should be left to sell their products without unnecessary restrictions. We have no good reason to grant any one of them special privileges, political or financial."--book jacket front flap.
Download or read book The Church and the Free Market written by Brian Howe and published by ATF Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Politics and religion combine when governments contract out welfare services to church welfare agencies. This practice raises questions of the autonomy of church agencies, maintenance of their distinctively Christian value base, and the extent to which the Church is being co-opted into government policy.
Download or read book Catholic Social Teaching and the Market Economy written by Philip Booth and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Catholic Social Teaching and the Market Economy provides a rigorous yet accessible discussion on the interrelating discipline of Catholic social teaching and economics. Philip Booth shows both how economics can have an effect on Catholic social teaching and how Catholicism itself can affect economic policies. The book is thoroughly referenced with contributions from leading international academics, and will appeal to both academics and students of economics and theology.
Download or read book Religion in a Free Market written by Barry Alexander Kosmin and published by Paramount Market Publishing. This book was released on 2006 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the pulpits to the op-ed pages, several messages about religion in the U.S. are heard again and again: It's said that Americans are flocking to churches and other religious institutions in greater numbers than ever before, that non-Christian faiths are growing rapidly, and that a new religious fervor among the young is filling up the pews. All of these frequently heard messages are incorrect, according to this book. The book, by professors Barry A. Kosmin and Ariela Keysar of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., is based on a major national survey which they conducted. The U.S. Census is prohibited from asking questions about religion, so this survey, the American Religious Identification Survey, contains the most complete and reliable source of data on religion in America today. This book argues that religion in America can best be understood as a product on offer in the marketplace of ideas. It says that "religious ferment in America is as strong as it has ever been, so whatever you learned about religion in the U.S. a generation ago is out of date."
Download or read book Free Markets and the Culture of Common Good written by Martin Schlag and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-04-23 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent economic development and the financial and economic crisis require a change in our approach to business and finance. This book combines theology, economy and philosophy in order to examine in detail the idea that the functioning of a free market economy depends upon sound cultural and ethical foundations. The free market is a cultural achievement, not only an economic phenomenon subject to technical rules of trade and exchange. It is an achievement which lives by and depends upon the values and virtues shared by the majority of those who engage in economic activity. It is these values and virtues that we refer to as culture. Trust, credibility, loyalty, diligence, and entrepreneurship are the values inherent in commercial rules and law. But beyond law, there is also the need for ethical convictions and for global solidarity with developing countries. This book offers new ideas for future sustainable development and responds to an increasing need for a new sense of responsibility for the common good in societal institutions and good leadership.
Download or read book Defending the Free Market written by Robert Sirico and published by Regnery Publishing. This book was released on 2012-05-22 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Left has seized on our economic troubles as an excuse to “blame the rich guy” and paint a picture of capitalism and the free market as selfish, greedy, and cruel. Democrats in Congress and “Occupy” protesters across the country assert that the free market is not only unforgiving, it’s morally corrupt. According to President Obama and his allies, only by allowing the government to heavily control and regulate business and by redistributing the wealth can we ensure fairness and compassion. Exactly the opposite is true, says Father Robert A. Sirico in his thought–provoking new book, Defending the Free Market: The Moral Case for a Free Economy. Father Sirico argues that a free economy actually promotes charity, selflessness, and kindness. And in Defending the Free Market, he shows why free-market capitalism is not only the best way to ensure individual success and national prosperity but is also the surest route to a moral and socially–just society. In Defending the Free Market, Father Sirico shows: Why we can’t have freedom without a free economy Why the best way to help the poor is to a start a business Why charity works—but welfare doesn't How Father Sirico himself converted from being a leftist colleague of Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden to recognizing the merits of a free economy. In this heated presidential election year, the Left will argue that capitalism may produce winners, but it is cruel and unfair. Yet as Sirico proves in Defending the Free Market, capitalism does not simply provide opportunity for material success, but it ensures a more ethical and moral society as well.
Download or read book Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism written by Kathryn Tanner and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-01-01 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the world's most celebrated theologians argues for a Protestant anti-work ethic In his classic The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber famously showed how Christian beliefs and practices could shape persons in line with capitalism. In this significant reimagining of Weber's work, Kathryn Tanner provocatively reverses this thesis, arguing that Christianity can offer a direct challenge to the largely uncontested growth of capitalism. Exploring the cultural forms typical of the current finance-dominated system of capitalism, Tanner shows how they can be countered by Christian beliefs and practices with a comparable person-shaping capacity. Addressing head-on the issues of economic inequality, structural under- and unemployment, and capitalism's unstable boom/bust cycles, she draws deeply on the theological resources within Christianity to imagine anew a world of human flourishing. This book promises to be one of the most important theological books in recent years.
Download or read book The Victory of Reason written by Rodney Stark and published by Random House. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many books have been written about the success of the West, analyzing why Europe was able to pull ahead of the rest of the world by the end of the Middle Ages. The most common explanations cite the West’s superior geography, commerce, and technology. Completely overlooked is the fact that faith in reason, rooted in Christianity’s commitment to rational theology, made all these developments possible. Simply put, the conventional wisdom that Western success depended upon overcoming religious barriers to progress is utter nonsense.In The Victory of Reason, Rodney Stark advances a revolutionary, controversial, and long overdue idea: that Christianity and its related institutions are, in fact, directly responsible for the most significant intellectual, political, scientific, and economic breakthroughs of the past millennium. In Stark’s view, what has propelled the West is not the tension between secular and nonsecular society, nor the pitting of science and the humanities against religious belief. Christian theology, Stark asserts, is the very font of reason: While the world’s other great belief systems emphasized mystery, obedience, or introspection, Christianity alone embraced logic and reason as the path toward enlightenment, freedom, and progress. That is what made all the difference.In explaining the West’s dominance, Stark convincingly debunks long-accepted “truths.” For instance, by contending that capitalism thrived centuries before there was a Protestant work ethic–or even Protestants–he counters the notion that the Protestant work ethic was responsible for kicking capitalism into overdrive. In the fifth century, Stark notes, Saint Augustine celebrated theological and material progress and the institution of “exuberant invention.” By contrast, long before Augustine, Aristotle had condemned commercial trade as “inconsistent with human virtue”–which helps further underscore that Augustine’s times were not the Dark Ages but the incubator for the West’s future glories. This is a sweeping, multifaceted survey that takes readers from the Old World to the New, from the past to the present, overturning along the way not only centuries of prejudiced scholarship but the antireligious bias of our own time. The Victory of Reason proves that what we most admire about our world–scientific progress, democratic rule, free commerce–is largely due to Christianity, through which we are all inheritors of this grand tradition.
Download or read book To Serve God and Wal Mart written by Bethany Moreton and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-05-31 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This extraordinary biography of Wal-Mart's world shows how a Christian pro-business movement grew from the bottom up as well as the top down, bolstering an economic vision that sanctifies corporate globalization.
Download or read book Politically Incorrect Guide to American History written by Thomas E. Woods and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2004-01-04 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The problem in America isn’t so much what people don’t know; the problem is what people think they know that just ain’t so.” —Thomas E. Woods Most Americans trust that their history professors and high school teachers will give students honest and accurate information. The Politically Incorrect Guide to American Historymakes it quite clear that liberal professors have misinformed our children for generations. Professor Thomas E. Woods, Jr. takes on the most controversial moments of American history and exposes how history books are merely a series of clichés drafted by academics who are heavily biased against God, democracy, patriotism, capitalism and most American family values. Woods reveals the truth behind many of today's prominent myths.... MYTH:The First Amendment prohibits school prayer MYTH: The New Deal created great prosperity MYTH:What the Supreme Court says, goes From the real American “revolutionaries” to the reality of labor unions, The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History is all you need for the truth about America—objective and unvarnished.
Download or read book The Churching of America 1776 2005 written by Roger Finke and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edition offers research, statistics and stories that document-increased participation in religious groups in the US in the 21st century. New chapters chart the development of African American churches from the early 19th century and the ethnic religious communities of recent immigrants.
Download or read book This Little Church Went to Market written by Gary E. Gilley and published by Allegiance Press, Incorporated. This book was released on 2002 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With many evangelical churches being subscribed to pragmatic rather than scriptural patterns for worship this book calls for the Church to return to its scriptural roots.
Download or read book The Church and the Market written by Thomas E. Woods and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Money Greed and God written by Jay W. Richards and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-05-05 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism is the Solution and Not the Problem, Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute Jay W. Richards and bestselling author of Indivisible: Restoring Faith, Family, and Freedom Before It's Too Late and Infiltrated: How to Stop the Insiders and Activists Who Are Exploiting the Financial Crisis to Control Our Lives and Our Fortunes, defends capitalism within the context of the Christian faith, revealing how entrepreneurial enterprise, based on hard work, honesty, and trust, actually fosters creativity and growth. In doing so, Money, Greed, and God exposes eight myths about capitalism, and demonstrates that a good Christian can be a good capitalist.
