Abstract
Recognising that the conversation between the economic domain and theology has been ongoing for millennia, Devin Singh begins Economy and Modern Christian Thought by outlining three reasons that justify another introduction to the dialogue. Firstly, ‘the perennial conversation between Christian thought and economy is in constant flux’ (p. 4). There may be some who would want to suggest that the positions on these questions have been fixed, still are fixed, and will forever be fixed, but the reality is that things change. It is not just religious thought that develops. We live in an era where the economy is constantly morphing. Singh argues that ‘new economic realities and practices, and the new economic theories and justifications that accompany them, call for new examination and engagement’ (p. 5). And finally, in an age after the end of history, where Margaret Thatcher's threat that there was no alternative to neoliberalism continues to echo, such works are ‘important for unmasking ideological presentations of the economy as an inevitability, and for recalling alternative visions and frameworks for change that might upend images of the status quo’ (p. 6).
The book proceeds through three clearly delineated stages. The first chapter looks at different ‘approaches’ Christian thinkers take around these questions. Singh groups the different paths as ‘scriptural’, ‘social-scientific’, ‘ethical’, ‘philosophical’, and ‘theological’. He is admirably clear that this schema is a convention and extensive overlap can be found. All that can be offered are postcard sketches, and experts in any given domain will surely feel that their research interest warranted a little more space, therefore this book will not primarily be of use to experts, but to those just beginning to listen into the conversation.
In the second chapter Singh argues it is important to have an articulated methodology for how Christian thought approaches the economy. In the absence of theoretical rigour, ‘the basis for such interventions is attenuated’ (p. 28). How we conceive of the economy is a basic question that cannot be taken for granted. This is an especially clear explanation of how our ‘common-sense’ around the economy came to be. ‘After violent and coercive intervention had constructed the market according to the interests of aristocratic, land-owning, and entrepreneurial classes, market theorists presented the economy as an independent, natural, and spontaneous sphere requiring neither regulation nor invention’ (p. 37). Early economics, Singh reminds the reader, ‘began as a subfield of Christian moral philosophy’ (p. 42) and it continues to operate with quasi-theological ideas: ‘Arguably, themes of providential equilibrium and redemptive commerce remain present today’ (p. 44).
Having considered the historical perspective, Singh offers an illuminated account of why it is so hard to engage economics from a theological perspective today. ‘Orthodox economics has shielded itself from fruitful interaction by encasing itself in the guise of a hard science’ (p. 45), he argues, obscuring its fundamentally social-scientific concern behind algorithmic abstractions. He summarises his argument for why theologians should continue the conversation by reference to a quotation from Myles Werntz: ‘One of the reasons theology is able to alter economic practice is precisely that it does not stand outside economic thinking’ (p. 50).
In the third chapter, Singh ‘explores key themes and concerns developing in the engagement between Christian thought and economy’ (p. 51). He outlines twelve active channels for thinking about the economy. Necessarily brief, each sub-section manages to summarise these ‘sites’ of ‘well-developed or nascent conversation’ (p. 51). There are terrific asides to be enjoyed by the reader. I especially appreciated the etymological digression on the relationship between ‘precarity’ and ‘prayer’. Precarity around employment, housing, food security, and a range of other essential aspects of life are increasing across the Western world and so often the policy responses amount to little more than a promise of ‘thoughts and prayers’ from political leaders. As Singh phrases it, to be in precarity is to be in a state where ‘a plea is all that one has left’ (p. 60). In the sub-section on ‘Corporate Form’, Singh takes us, in a few pages, from Mitt Romney's infamous (but legally accurate) claim that ‘Corporations are people too!’ (p. 73) back to Pope Innocent IV's innovation of persona ficta. The rich potential for fruitful dialogue between institutional economics and Christian thought is alluded to here and in a creative sub-section on ‘Bureaucracy’. These notes on possible ‘trajectories’ would alone make this book essential for every theological library.
The impression could be taken that Singh is trying to be encyclopaedic in his references. This is not the case. Important works from these islands including Sean Doherty's Theology and Economic Ethics: Martin Luther and Arthur Rich in Dialogue (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014) or the edited volume Doherty prepared with Jeremy Kidwell (Theology and Economics: A Christian Vision for the Common Good, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) go unmentioned, as do recent important works from Catholic thinkers based in the United States (I am thinking here particularly of recent books by Kate Ward, Tony Annett, and the immensely significant Send Lazarus by Matthew T. Eggemeier and Peter Joseph Fritz, New York: Fordham University Press, 2020). An extended bibliography would perhaps have increased the usefulness of the volume.
Singh is careful to locate his own position as a scholar: ‘I do not attempt to set out a normative theological position about what the relation between Christian thought and economy should be in light of doctrinal or confessional commitments’ (p. 7, emphasis original). As I read it, there was a slightly disparaging tone towards authors who work from a more confessional position. I may be too sensitive because I am grateful to such authors, who played a key role in developing my interest in these topics when I was a young computer programmer trying to work out what my new-found faith meant for my bank account (and because I surely fall under the same heading). At one point, Singh describes ‘scriptural’ approaches which ‘may be more or less scholarly in their form; they may include biblical exegesis of varying degrees of critical distance, and might engage biblical commentaries and even other biblical scholars and so-called biblical theologians’ (p. 11). A week after reading it, I am still confused about what ‘so-called’ means here. The closest citation given refers to two deeply influential books—Ronald Sider's 1984 best-seller Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (Westmont, IL: InterVarsity Press) and Craig Blomberg's Neither Poverty nor Riches (Westmont, IL: IVP Academic, 2001)—and while they are both firmly confessional texts, I wish I lived in a world where they had more influence.
This gets at the major methodological gap I find in the book. At the beginning Singh is clear that he has consciously framed the conversation in terms of ‘Christian thought’ and not theology because ‘the discourses I draw on transcend the traditional disciplinary divisions’ (p. 7). But the primary source of ‘Christian thought’ about the economy is, presumably, from the initiatives, campaigns, and preaching of the churches. Discussion of such activity is not present. Singh proposes that when theology is imagined ‘as a source of potential moral evaluation and critique’ of the economic domain, that ‘relationship is presumed, and it is one of primarily unidirectional impact and influence’ (p. 29). An engagement here with the ‘Economics of Francesco’ project or the Church of England's involvement in payday lending would be obvious counter-examples from the ecclesial sphere where economists and business leaders are formally and substantially informing theological reflection and practice.
Quibbles aside, in about a hundred pages, it is hard to imagine a better introduction to this field than what Singh has achieved here. Any graduate student beginning a project in this area should be advised to consult this text towards the start of their studies. It will offer an invaluable map of the terrain and a schema that they can work with when organising their own ideas. Sections of it could be used in later undergraduate programmes.
