Routledge Divine Economy: Theology and the Market (Routledge Radical Orthodoxy)

About the Author Stephen Long is assistant professor of theology at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. He has previously published Living the Discipline: United Methodist Theological Reflections on War, Civilization and Holiness and Tragedy, Tradition, Transformation: The Ethics of Paul Rooney. Product Description What has theology to do with economics? They are both sciences of human action, but have traditionally been treated as very separate disciplines. Divine Economy is the first book to address the need for an active dialogue between the two.D. Stephen Long traces three strategies which have been used to bring theology to bear on economic questions: the dominant twentieth-century tradition, of Weber's fact-value distinction; an emergent tradition based on Marxist social analysis; and a residual tradition that draws on an ancient understanding of a functional economy. He concludes that the latter approach shows the greatest promise because it refuses to subordinate theological knowledge to autonomous social-scientific research.Divine Economy will be welcomed by those with an interest in how theology can inform economic debate. Review ..."Stephen Long's book is an important contribution to what is becoming an increasingly pressing theological preoccupation."-M. Douglas Meeks, Vanderbilt University "Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Winter 2002 "[T]his contribution seeks to connect Cambridge intellectual hothouse with the rest of us The book...[is] a litmus test of Radical Orthodoxy's claim to credibility in religious and secular arenas."-"Theology "Stephen Long...has fashioned a complex book that challenges not only traditional approaches to economy...but also rejects nearly all the approaches of Christian scholars who deal with economic matters.."-Journal of Church and State