Religion and the Morality of the Market

Daromir Rudnyckyj, Filippo Osella

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781107186057
• eBook ISBN: 9781316952955
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Cultural & Social Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, there has been a widespread affirmation of economic ideologies that conceive the market as an autonomous sphere of human practice, holding that market principles should be applied to human action at large. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the ascendance of market reason has been countered by calls for reforms of financial markets and for the consideration of moral values in economic practice. This book intervenes in these debates by showing how neoliberal market practices engender new forms of religiosity, and how religiosity shapes economic actions. It reveals how religious movements and organizations have reacted to the increasing prominence of market reason in unpredictable, and sometimes counterintuitive, ways. Using a range of examples from different countries and religious traditions, the book illustrates the myriad ways in which religious and market moralities are closely imbricated in diverse global contexts.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Table of contents
• List of figures
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Risk, Fate, Fortune
• 2 Morality, Markets, and the Gospel of Prosperity
• 3 Religious Myths Retold
• 4 Divine Markets
• 5 Merit Economies in Neoliberal Times
• 6 “Structural Adjustment Islam” and the Religious Economy in Neoliberal Mali
• 7 Assembling Islam and Liberalism
• 8 Persistent Forms
• 9 Marketizing Piety through Charitable Work
• 10 “A Poor Muslim Cannot Be a Good Muslim”
• 11 “For God and the Country”
• 12 “The Globalization of Indifference”
• Index