Interface Between Theology and Economics

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Discussion

Enrico Beltramini:

""Long is a theologian and a member of Radical Orthodoxy, a variety of ressourcement theology seeking to recover the riches of patristic and high medieval Christian orthodoxy in order to address contemporary theological, philosophical, political and cultural concerns. To understand his attempt, one must remember that Long was working in the shadow of John Milbank, an Anglican political theologian who has challenged social theory by arguing that theology is already social theory, and therefore a social theory independent from theology is questionable. Milbank’s opera magna, Theology and social theory: Beyond secular reason (1993) is a theological critique to social theory’s self-definition as a secular discourse. In Divine economy, Long wanted to replicate Milbank, with a specific focus to economics. Milbank organized a session (‘Theological Readings of Economics’) at the 2007 annual conference of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) in which he exhorted theologians to get a second doctorate in economics and engage economics from the angle of theology. He also suggested the birth of a new group within AAR dedicated to the theological inquiry of economics. As far as I know, the suggestion was not followed. This somewhat lengthy introduction is to show that the interface between theology and economics (and business) has a history, and that history is a subject of its own.


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The publication of a highly specialized book in political theology, The kingdom and the glory: For a theological genealogy of economy and government (2011) has attracted new scholarly attention to the relationship between theology and economy. The author, Italian political philosopher and theorist Giorgio Agamben, is investigating the deeper causes of the crisis of the liberal order. The book, however, has taken on a life of its own. It has been influential well beyond political philosophy, being analyzed in various disciplines including biblical studies, history, and obviously, economics and business. Agamben is not interested in economics (the discipline) but economy (the concept). He offers a genealogy of the concept and identifies the economy of the Trinity as the theological locus in which that genealogy begins. This beginning, so to speak, is not innocent. By recognizing the theological origin of the ‘economy,’ Agamben rejects the notion of a purely ‘natural’ human ordering of economic life, that is, he rejects the secularization thesis. ‘Economy’ itself is a Christian concept. The patristic and medieval ‘economy’ (oikonomia) was a form of management, the providential-governmental paradigm that administrates God’s creation. God’s invisible hand, namely, the angels, became in modern times the market’s invisible hand. Thus, the concept of economy is constructed from the deformed materials of Christian theology.

The term ‘economic theology’ has entered scholarly conversation through Agamben’s The kingdom and the glory. According to Agamben, economic theology is a paradigm distinct from, and complementary to, political theology. Both, however, belong to a discipline named ‘political theology.’ In general, the term ‘political theology’ means that there is a relationship in the theological sphere on the one hand—where ‘theological’ refers to theology, religion, and sacred—and on the other, the sphere of politics, where ‘politics’ stands for both political institutions and theoretical reflections on policy. The term ‘political theology’ is polysemic, therefore there are several ways to frame the relationship between theology and politics. Here I list the five most important ways. First, Political Augustinianism believes in the primacy of theology over politics, so that theology is the foundation of institutions and political action. Second, authors like Jan Assmann argue the opposite, that is, the primacy of the political over the theological, to the point that theological concepts are the result of a process of religionization of political concepts. Third, authors like Karl Löwith, Eric Voegelin, and Hans Kelsen propose the assimilation of theology within politics and the development of secular religions. Fourth, Rosseau is the initiator of the idea of civil religion. Finally, authors such as Carl Schmitt and Agamben sustain that the interpretation of political modernity must pass through a critique of the notion of secularization. This last approach is the discipline traditionally labeled ‘political theology.’ According to this discipline, political modernity cannot be interpreted according to the notion of a political independent from the theological. Political modernity is the result of a decision internal to theology, that is, a transformation of God into a transcendental being and the replacement of a providential order with the juridical order. Political theology therefore stands for a theory of politics as dependent from both theology and a decision within theology. The second point reveals the irrational origin of politics. In summary, ‘economic theology’ is a specific approach within the discipline of political theology. In this context, ‘economic theology’ can be defined, by analogy, as a rejection of economy as a product of secularization and as a rational enterprise. "

(http://www.ephemerajournal.org/contribution/economic-theology-economy-subfield-theology)


More information

Bibliography

  • Stefan Schwarzkopf (ed.) (2019) The Routledge handbook of economic theology. London: Routledge. Pp. xxii + 396. ISBN 9781315267623
  • Agamben, G. (2011) The kingdom and the glory: For a theological genealogy of economy and government, trans. Lorenzo Chiesa and Matteo Mandarini. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
  • Long, S. (2000) Divine economy: Theology and market. London: Routledge.
  • Lynch, T. (2019) Apocalyptic Political Theology: Hegel, Taubes and Malabou. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
  • Milbank, J. (1993) Theology and social theory: Beyond secular reason. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
  • Waterman, A.M.C. (2021) ‘On Economics, Theology, and Religion,’ Journal of Economics, Theology, and Religion, Vol. 1, No. 1, 13-24.