o to a financial system that rules rather than serves,” writes Pope Francis in Evangelii gaudium. Astutely and prophetically, the pope decries the idolatry of money, in which “we calmly accept its dominion over ourselves and our societies.” The ideology of financial capitalism is all-encompassing, invading every aspect of our lives. Yet more than a decade after the latest financial crisis, it remains poorly understood.
In Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism, Kathryn Tanner, a professor of systematic theology at Yale Divinity School, analyzes “finance-dominated capitalism” and offers a constructive theological response rooted in a Christian theology of grace and salvation. Recognizing the danger of a world in which “no future exists outside present capitalist arrangements,” Tanner seeks to provide a “Protestant anti-work ethic” using a theology of grace to interrupt financial capitalism’s monopoly on time and identity.
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