Religion and the Rise of Capitalism by Benjamin M. Friedman (English) Paperback

Description: Religion and the Rise of Capitalism by Benjamin M. Friedman From one of the nations preeminent experts on economic policy, a major reassessment of the foundations of modern economic thinking that explores the profound influence of a previously unrecognized force-religion.From one of the nations preeminent experts on economic policy, a major reassessment of the foundations of modern economic thinking that explores the profound influence of an until-now unrecognized force-religion."Friedman has given us an original and brilliant new perspective on the terrifying divisions of our own times. No book could be more important." -George A. Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in EconomicsCritics of contemporary economics complain that belief in free markets-among economists as well as many ordinary citizens-is a form of religion. And, it turns out, that in a deeper, more historically grounded sense there is something to that idea.Contrary to the conventional historical view of economics as an entirely secular product of the Enlightenment, Benjamin M. Friedman demonstrates that religion exerted a powerful influence from the outset. Friedman makes clear how the foundational transition in thinking about what we now call economics, beginning in the eighteenth century, was decisively shaped by the hotly contended lines of religious thought within the English-speaking Protestant world. Beliefs about God-given human character, about the after-life, and about the purpose of our existence, were all under scrutiny in the world in which Adam Smith and his contemporaries lived.Friedman explores how those debates go far in explaining the puzzling behavior of so many of our fellow citizens whose views about economic policies-and whose voting behavior-seems sharply at odds with what would be to their own economic benefit. Illuminating the origins of the relationship between religious thinking and economic thinking, together with its ongoing consequences, Friedman provides invaluable insights into our current economic policy debates and demonstrates ways to shape more functional policies for all citizens. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography BENJAMIN M. FRIEDMAN is the William Joseph Maier Professor of Political Economy, and formerly chairman of the Department of Economics, at Harvard University, where he has now taught for nearly half a century. Mr. Friedmans two previous general interest books are Day of Reckoning- The Consequences of American Economic Policy Under Reagan and After, and The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth. He has also written extensively on issues of economic policy, for both economists and economic policymakers, and he is a frequent contributor to national publications, especially The New York Review of Books. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Review "Once theological questions are rendered into secular language, their relevance, and thus the importance of Friedmans Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, becomes clear . . . This overview cannot even begin to pay homage to the prodigious research informing Friedmans analysis. He covers not only the main thinkers in both economics and theology, but also the less-well-known ones who helped shape their thought. He can credibly discuss the philosophy of John Locke and the science of Isaac Newton. As one reads Friedman, words like "magisterial," "masterpiece" and "magnificent" floated through my thoughts . . . If someone had told me that a former chairman of the Harvard economics department would write a major work on Calvinism and its influence, you would have had to consider me a skeptic. Nonetheless Friedman has, and the result is an awakening all its own."—Alan Wolfe, The New York Times Book Review"Friedman has made an important contribution to the literature on the intertwining of Western economic thought with religious beliefs. His detailed tracing of the philosophical and theological roots of free market economics is well researched, well written, and well worth reading."—Carol Elsen, Library Journal (starred review)"A bracing challenge to narrowly secular assessments of economic theory."— Bryce Christensen, Booklist (starred review)"Of the many factors that went into the construction of the modern economic worldview undergirding capitalism, Friedman has successfully added religion back into the causal equation."—Michael Shermer, The American Scholar "Meticulously researched, extremely well-written . . . A joy to read . . . The amount of historical detail Friedman lays out in support of [his] thesis is breaktaking. Any reader, even one stepped in the history of the Enlightenment, Reformation, and nineteenth-century American religion, will come away learning much. . . . Friedmans book is a massive achivement."—Jared Rubin, Journal of Economic Literature"Ben Friedmans Religion and the Rise of Capitalism is an expansive and intricate tapestry depicting the progression and interaction of ideas and events in economics and (mainly Protestant) religion across four centuries. The richness of the woven strands does not obscure the thematic integrity of the books central argument."—Bruce MacLaury, President Emeritus, The Brookings Institution "Religion and the Rise of Capitalism takes longstanding debates over religion and capitalism in a surprising new direction. Benjamin Friedman makes his case with the erudition and particularity of a leading academic economist. His arguments are sure to generate new thinking and debate from all sides."—Christopher DeMuth, Distinguished Fellow, Hudson Institute "Ben Friedmans fascinating and impressive account of the interaction of economics and religion combines both mastery of the history of economic theory and a profound engagement with the complexities of religious belief, both in Britain and America. Economists, theologians, and students of modern intellectual history will find here a truly valuable resource."—Harold W. Attridge, Sterling Professor of Divinity emeritus, Yale University"Citizens are not simply pursuers of narrowly defined economic self-interest, sometimes to the point of seeming self-harm. Religion and the Rise of Capitalism makes sense of these choices with respect and insight, by showing the power of religious ideas to shape character, and in turn policy."—Adam S. Posen, President, Peterson Institute for International Economics"Benjamin Friedman has produced a worthy piece of intellectual history, with important implications for public policy. His book, to use an appropriate adjective, is enlightening."—Robert Solow, Institute Professor Emeritus, MIT"With his focus on the role of religion in the evolution of economic thinking, Benjamin Friedman has given us an original and brilliant new perspective on the terrifying divisions of our own times. No book could be more important."—George A. Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in Economics "In this pathbreaking study, Benjamin Friedman follows the continuing influence of theology on economics from Adam Smith into the twentieth century and even provides an analysis of why so many religious people in the U.S. today vote contrary to their own economic interests. A subtle and insightful book."—Daniel Finn, Clemens Professor of Economics and Professor of Theology, College of St. Benedict and St. Johns University"Economists and others curious about what sparked the classical economics of Smith and Schumpeter, later Keyness paradigm and some of the new theories emerging now must read this colossal work. On top of that, the book puts to rest the belief that economists cant write."—Edmund Phelps, Nobel Laureate in Economics, author of Mass Flourishing "In this massively researched and scholarly book, Friedman shows that religious thinking was present at the creation of the young science of economics, and that its influence on modern economic thought has been profound and lasting. Not only in academic circles, but also in present-day American political discourse, religion has been powerful both for good and for ill. The authors Moral Consequences of Economic Growth was a model of how to communicate complex factual material and sophisticated reasoning to the general reader. This new book does at least as good a job."—A.M.C. Waterman, St Johns College, Winnipeg"A lively, lucid story of self-interest mutating into something beneficial, a story crucial to the emergence of modern economics."—David D. Hall, author of The Puritans: A Transatlantic History Review Quote "Once theological questions are rendered into secular language, their relevance, and thus the importance of Friedmans Religion and the Rise of Capitalism , becomes clear . . . This overview cannot even begin to pay homage to the prodigious research informing Friedmans analysis. He covers not only the main thinkers in both economics and theology, but also the less-well-known ones who helped shape their thought. He can credibly discuss the philosophy of John Locke and the science of Isaac Newton. As one reads Friedman, words like "magisterial," "masterpiece" and "magnificent" floated through my thoughts . . . If someone had told me that a former chairman of the Harvard economics department would write a major work on Calvinism and its influence, you would have had to consider me a skeptic. Nonetheless Friedman has, and the result is an awakening all its own." --Alan Wolfe, The New York Times Book Review "Friedman has made an important contribution to the literature on the intertwining of Western economic thought with religious beliefs. His detailed tracing of the philosophical and theological roots of free market economics is well researched, well written, and well worth reading." --Carol Elsen, Library Journal (starred review) "A bracing challenge to narrowly secular assessments of economic theory." -- Bryce Christensen, Booklist (starred review) "Of the many factors that went into the construction of the modern economic worldview undergirding capitalism, Friedman has successfully added religion back into the causal equation." --Michael Shermer, The American Scholar "Ben Friedmans Religion and the Rise of Capitalism is an expansive and intricate tapestry depicting the progression and interaction of ideas and events in economics and (mainly Protestant) religion across four centuries. The richness of the woven strands does not obscure the thematic integrity of the books central argument." --Bruce MacLaury, President Emeritus, The Brookings Institution " Religion and the Rise of Capitalism takes longstanding debates over religion and capitalism in a surprising new direction. Benjamin Friedman makes his case with the erudition and particularity of a leading academic economist. His arguments are sure to generate new thinking and debate from all sides." --Christopher DeMuth, Distinguished Fellow, Hudson Institute "Ben Friedmans fascinating and impressive account of the interaction of economics and religion combines both mastery of the history of economic theory and a profound engagement with the complexities of religious belief, both in Britain and America. Economists, theologians, and students of modern intellectual history will find here a truly valuable resource." --Harold W. Attridge, Sterling Professor of Divinity emeritus, Yale University "Citizens are not simply pursuers of narrowly defined economic self-interest, sometimes to the point of seeming self-harm. Religion and the Rise of Capitalism makes sense of these choices with respect and insight, by showing the power of religious ideas to shape character, and in turn policy." --Adam S. Posen, President, Peterson Institute for International Economics "Benjamin Friedman has produced a worthy piece of intellectual history, with important implications for public policy. His book, to use an appropriate adjective, is enlightening." --Robert Solow, Institute Professor Emeritus, MIT "With his focus on the role of religion in the evolution of economic thinking, Benjamin Friedman has given us an original and brilliant new perspective on the terrifying divisions of our own times. No book could be more important." --George A. Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in Economics "In this pathbreaking study, Benjamin Friedman follows the continuing influence of theology on economics from Adam Smith into the twentieth century and even provides an analysis of why so many religious people in the U.S. today vote contrary to their own economic interests. A subtle and insightful book." --Daniel Finn, Clemens Professor of Economics and Professor of Theology, College of St. Benedict and St. Johns University "Economists and others curious about what sparked the classical economics of Smith and Schumpeter, later Keyness paradigm and some of the new theories emerging now must read this colossal work. On top of that, the book puts to rest the belief that economists cant write." --Edmund Phelps, Nobel Laureate in Economics, author of Mass Flourishing "In this massively researched and scholarly book, Friedman shows that religious thinking was present at the creation of the young science of economics, and that its influence on modern economic thought has been profound and lasting. Not only in academic circles, but also in present-day American political discourse, religion has been powerful both for good and for ill. The authors Moral Consequences of Economic Growth was a model of how to communicate complex factual material and sophisticated reasoning to the general reader. This new book does at least as good a job." --A.M.C. Waterman, St Johns College, Winnipeg "A lively, lucid story of self-interest mutating into something beneficial, a story crucial to the emergence of modern economics." --David D. Hall, author of The Puritans: A Transatlantic History Excerpt from Book Introduction Where do our ideas about how the economy works, and our views on economic policy, come from? Most people in the Western world, and especially in America, simply take for granted that we organize one of the most essential aspects of human activity--the economic sphere--primarily around private initiative channeled through markets. But where did that presumption come from? And why do so many people, again especially Americans, often see any challenge to our market-centered conduct of economic affairs as a fundamental threat to our way of life? The economist John Maynard Keynes famously suggested that the thinking of even the most practically minded people, who believe they are exempt from any influence from the world of ideas, is nonetheless the product of what economists and other academic thinkers said some time before. This may be true, but if so it merely raises a further question: where did the economists ideas come from? The European historian Fritz Stern once reflected that why historians think as they do may be just as important as what they think. Why economists think as they do matters as well. The central argument of this book is that our ideas about economics and economic policy have long-standing roots in religious thinking. Most of us are unaware of how religious ideas shape our economic thinking, and when such links are occasionally suggested they are mostly misunderstood. But religion--not just the daily or annual cycle of ritual observances, but the inner belief structure that forms an essential part of peoples view of the world in which they live--has shaped human thinking since before there were written words to record it. In this book I argue that the influence of religious beliefs on modern Western economics has been profound, and that it remains important today. Critics of todays economics sometimes complain that belief in free markets, among economists and many ordinary citizens too, is itself a form of religion. It turns out that there is something to the idea: not in the way the critics mean, but in a deeper, more historically grounded sense. But the point is more than just a matter of the history of ideas. The influence of religious thinking also bears on how Americans today, along with citizens of other Western countries, think about many of the most highly contested economic policy issues of our time. This connection between peoples economic views and religious beliefs-- often including religious beliefs that they do not personally hold-- stems from before the creation of the American republic, and it runs to the core of how economics came to be the line of thinking we know today. It also helps explain what we often view as the puzzling behavior of many of our fellow citizens whose attitudes toward questions of economic policy seem sharply at odds with what would be to their own economic benefit. The foundational transition in thinking about what we now call economics--the transition that we rightly associate with Adam Smith and his contemporaries in the eighteenth century--was importantly shaped by what were then new and vigorously contended lines of religious thought within the English-speaking Protestant world. The resulting influence of religious thinking on modern economic thinking, right from its origins, established resonances that then persisted, albeit in evolving form as the economic context changed, the questions economists asked shifted, and the analytical tools at their disposal expanded, right through the twentieth century. Although for the most part we are not consciously aware of them--this is why their consequences seem puzzling whenever we stumble across them--especially in America these lasting resonances with religious thinking continue to shape our current-day discussion of economic issues and our public debate over questions of economic policy. I am well aware that the idea of a central influence of religion on Adam Smiths thinking, or on that of many of his contemporaries, will initially strike many knowledgeable readers as implausible on its face. Smiths great friend David Hume, who also played a key role in the creation of modern economics, was an avowed skeptic and an outspoken opponent of organized religion; Hume notoriously referred to Church of England bishops as "Retainers to Superstition." Smith, as far as we can tell, was at best a deist of the kind Americans identify with Thomas Jefferson. There is little evidence of Smiths active religious participation, much less religious enthusiasm. My argument is most certainly not that these were religiously dedicated men who self-consciously brought their theological commitments to bear on their economic thinking. Rather, the creators of modern economics lived at a time when religion was both more pervasive and more central than anything we know in todays Western world. And, crucially, intellectual life was more integrated then. Not only were the sciences and humanities (to use todays vocabulary) normally discussed in the same circles, and mostly by the same individuals, but theology too was part of the ongoing discussion. Part of what Smith taught, as a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow, was natural theology. He and his colleagues and friends were continually exposed to what were then fresh debates about new lines of theological thinking. I argue that what they heard and read and discussed influenced the economics they produced, just as the ideas of todays economists are visibly shaped by what we learn from physics, or biology, or demography. This idea importantly changes our view of the historical process by which the Western world arrived at todays economics. The conventional account is that the line of thinking we know today as economics was a product of the Enlightenment: more specifically, that the Smithian revolution and the subsequent development of economics as an intellectual discipline were part of the process of secular modernization in the sense of a historic turn from thinking in terms of a God-centered universe toward what we now broadly call humanism. Nicholas Phillipson, in his prize-winning biography of Adam Smith, referred to one statement of Smiths as a reminder that not just The Wealth of Nations but Smiths entire project for a modern science of man was "built on the foundations of the Enlightenments quintessential assault on religion." Phillipson was merely stating the commonly accepted view. As a matter of what Smith and his contemporaries consciously intended, it is accurate enough. But explanations of important developments that rely simply on the conscious intentions of the actors involved are necessarily limited. As the American historian Gordon Wood put it, people are often not so much the manipulators but the victims of their ideas. Even cultural influences that seem obvious from the perspective of decades or, better yet, centuries later were often invisible to those whose ideas they crucially shaped. Realizing that the Smithian revolution partly grew out of new ideas in theology, and that the religious debates of that day shaped it--not because that is what Smith and the other creators of modern economics intended, but because the theological debates of their time fundamentally altered how they thought about human nature and the underpinnings of everyday human interaction--puts a different gloss on the matter. So does understanding the ways in which the evolution of economic thinking during the two-plus centuries since has continued to reflect this initial religious influence. So too does recognizing the consequences of this deep intellectual connection for our current-day policy debate. Taking account of this from-the-bottom-up connection between economic thinking and key strands of religious thinking--the theological questions under so much dispute during Smiths time--helps explain a wide variety of puzzling phenomena, now and in the past: Why do so many Americans who have only the remotest prospect of ever making their way into the top income tax bracket nonetheless favor keeping the tax rate on top-bracket incomes low? More startling yet, why do so many Americans who have no chance whatever of inheriting money from a taxable estate passionately advocate abolishing "death taxes"? And is it merely a coincidence that these antitax crusaders, along with opponents of government regulation of business, and the countless lower-income supporters of benefits for corporations for which they do not work (and whose stock they do not own), disproportionately belong to the nations increasingly influential evangelical churches? Nor is the present-day relevance of this historical influence of religious thinking on economic thinking limited to the United States: Why is there, today, an "Anglo-Saxon model" of how to organize an economy and run a countrys economic policy? And why do so many people, in countries otherwise very similar to ours, reject it? Nearly a hundred years ago the English historian R. H. Tawney published a book with the same title as this one. Both the setting and the argument were different. Tawneys book was a response, in part a rebuttal, to Max Webers classic work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Weber had claimed that Calvinist religion--specifically, the belief that whether or not individual men and women are saved is a matter determined before they are even born, and over which they have no control--was historically a spur to forms of personal behavior that gave rise to modern capitalism. Moreover, Weber argued, this influence of belief in predestination persisted long after most people had ceased to hold it: indeed, long enough for most people to forget that such a belief had ever influenced their parents or grandparents behavior in Details ISBN0593311094 Author Benjamin M. Friedman Pages 560 Language English Year 2022 ISBN-10 0593311094 ISBN-13 9780593311097 Format Paperback Publication Date 2022-01-11 DEWEY 330.122 Publisher Random House USA Inc Imprint Vintage Books Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2022-01-11 NZ Release Date 2022-01-11 US Release Date 2022-01-11 UK Release Date 2022-01-11 Illustrations 30 photographs in text Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:145100460;

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