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Robert H. Nelson
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Economics as Religion: From Samuelson to Chicago and Beyond
by Robert H. Nelson (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars 12 ratings
In this study, Robert H. Nelson explores the genesis, the prophets, the prophesies, and the tenets of what he sees as a religion of economics that has come into full blossom in latter-day America. Nelson does not see "theology" as a bad word, and his examination of the theology underlying Samuelsonian and Chicagoan economics is not a put-down. It is a way of seeing the rhetoric of fundamental belief—what has been called "vision."
Editorial Reviews
Review
“Market economics is best understood as a religion. When I first read this claim in a book by Robert Nelson . . ., I had doubts. . . . [But] the more one thinks about the function of market economics in modern society, the stronger the case gets for treating it as a religion.”
—Michael Prowse, Financial Times (London)
“Nelson does not regard ‘theology’ as a cuss word, and so his detailed study of the theology underlying Samuelsonian and Chicagoan economics is not a putdown. It’s a way of seeing the rhetoric of fundamental belief—what has been called vision. Nelson…speaks with authority from within the field…. . His grasp of modern economics is broad and firm. And so in theology, too. It’s an important, even an amazing book: Luther meets Smith.”
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“Nelson's book is a challenge to economists to see their field anew.”
—Eileen Ciesla, American Enterprise
“Economists are not objective technocrats, applying a value-free science, and in developing this argument Mr. Nelson makes an important contribution.”
—Doug Bandow, Washington Times
“This engaging book should be of considerable value to scholars in the social sciences and humanities, to public policy makers, and to informed general readers.”
—A.R. Sanderson, Choice
“An exceedingly well-written book. [Nelson’s] style is both clear and graceful. . . . an exceptional production. This is a handsome, well-crafted book. At $35, it’s a real bargain.”
—John F. Henry, Journal of Economic Issues
“In his groundbreaking study, Robert Nelson explores the genesis, the prophets, the prophecies and the tenets of what he sees as a perfervid secular theology and religion of economics that has come into full blossom in latter-day America.”
—John Omicinski, America—The National Catholic Weekly
“His thesis is new and novel: he has written a strong brief for it, and to say the least, he has interesting ideas.”
—Robert D. Tollison, H-Net Book Reviews
“[Nelson] provides a huge service to students of religion in his attempts to place economics (viewed by many as a highly technical field far beyond the conceptual grasp of non-economists) in conversation with theology.”
—Christian Century
“Nelson argues that [economists] are really theologians, though mostly unaware of that fact, in his thoughtful and challenging new book. [He] makes a strong case that economics cannot be a purely positive science.”
—Claremont Review of Books
“Paul Samuelson has been called many things in his long career, but never before to my knowledge a theologian. But according to Robert Nelson in his excellent book, modern economics is bound inextricably with religion; and he takes Samuelson, the most influential economist of the years after World War II, as a prime example of his thesis.”
—Mises Review
“Nelson’s book is a challenge to economists to see their field anew.”
—Eileen Ciesla, Warren Brooks Fellow at Competitive Enterprise Institute
“Economics as Religion is an excellent book. [Its] purpose is to show how the arguments of economists legitimate social and economic arrangements by providing these arrangements with quasi-religious justification. Economists are thus doing theology while for the most part unaware of that fact. It provides a remarkably balanced and comprehensive history of the way that economics developed in the twentieth century. The book will undoubtedly be welcomed by . . . [a] considerable number of theologians. Professional economists will find [it] will broaden their understanding of what economists have been doing in recent decades. Political scientists or philosophers can . . . clarify their understandings of social science and especially economics. And I think it will find a fair number of readers in the general population.”
—Paul Heyne, University of Washington
“Economics As Religion is an exceptional book. People should buy it, read it, and assign it in class. It will change the way in which we view economics, and it might change how economists think about their world.”
—Jennifer Roback Morse, Markets and Morality
“Economics as Religion is a well-written book, one rich in ideas. It would appeal to many economists, especially those with interests in the history of economic thought, methodology, and religion. It also would appeal to students of the role of religion in public life. Now, about the title. . .”
—Gregory A . Krohn, Faith and Economics
“Deeply enriching and fascinating book.”
—Adrienne Clarkson, Governor General of Canada
“Mixing intellectual history, theology, and a sophisticated yet readable account of the primary doctrines of twentieth-century economics, Nelson’s book both illuminates economics’ immediate past and draws attention to the problems of the future.
Nelson’s survey of 20th-century economic thought is thorough and surprisingly readable; he has always been a good writer, and he has outdone himself here.
Economics as Religion is a major work—one that everyone concerned with economics (and everyone ought to be concerned with economics, in my opinion) should read. It prompts the reader to reconsider the intellectual legacy of the discipline, to rethink the roles of economists in public debate, and to ponder the rising challenges to the religion of progress.”
—Andrew P. Morriss, Books and Culture: A Christian Review
“My reservations notwithstanding, this is a very good book, and Nelson has touched on an important issue highly relevant for public policy.”
—David Colander, History of Political Economy
“Nelson has wide experience applying economics to public policy.”
—Science and Theology News
“That said, this book engages a vital subject that warrants interdisciplinary engagement. Its accessible language is just what the academy needs to promote dialogue between economists and theologians and, more broadly, between the social sciences and the humanities.”
—David P. Schmidt, Journal of Religion
“Nelson provides a huge service to students of religion in his attempts to place economics . . . in conversation with theology.”
—Christian Century
“Market economics is best understood as a religion. When I first read this claim in a book by Robert Nelson . . . I had doubts. . . . [But] the more one thinks about the function of market economics in modern society, the stronger the case gets for treating it as a religion.”
—Financial Times
“In his groundbreaking study, Robert Nelson explores the genesis, the prophets, the prophesies, and the tenets of what he sees as a . . . religion of economics that has come into full blossom in latter-day America.”
—America- The National Catholic Weekly
“As a history of modern neoclassical economic theory, [Nelson’s book] is exemplary. An exceedingly well-written book.”
—Journal of Economic Issues
“Nelson does not regard ‘theology’ as a cuss word, and so his detailed study of the theology underlying Samuelsonian and Chicagoan economics is not a put-down. It’s a way of seeing the rhetoric of fundamental belief—what has been called vision. Nelson . . . speaks with authority from within the field. . . . His grasp of modern economics is broad and firm. And so in theology, too. It’s an important, even an amazing book: Luther meets Smith.”
—Deirdre McCloskey, University of Illinois at Chicago
From the Publisher
An insightful exploration of the powerful role that economic belief plays in our modern society as a secular religion that serves many of the same functions as early Christian and other religions did in their time.
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Product details
Publisher : Penn State University Press (October 18, 2002)
Language : English
Paperback : 408 pages
4.2 out of 5 stars 12 ratings
Robert H. Nelson
Dr. Nelson is the author of many book chapters and journal articles and of eight books: The New Holy Wars: Economic Religion versus Environmental Religion in Contemporary America (Penn State University Press, 2010); Private Neighborhoods and the Transformation of Local Government (Urban Institute Press, 2005); Economics as Religion: From Samuelson to Chicago and Beyond (Penn State University Press, 2001); ); A Burning Issue: A Case for Abolishing the U.S. Forest Service (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000); Public Lands and Private Rights: The Failure of Scientific Management (Rowman & Littlefield, 1995); Reaching for Heaven on Earth: The Theological Meaning of Economics (Rowman & Littlefield, 1991); The Making of Federal Coal Policy (Duke University Press, 1983); and Zoning and Property Rights (MIT Press, 1977). The New Holy Wars was the 2010 Winner of the Grand Prize of the Eric Hoffer Book Award for the best book of the year by an independent publisher; and also silver medal winner for “Finance, Investment, Economics” of the 2010 Independent Publisher Book Awards (the “IPPYs”). Dr. Nelson has written widely in publications for broader audiences, including Forbes, The Weekly Standard, Reason, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Denver Post. He worked in the Office of Policy Analysis of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior from 1975 to 1993. He has served as the senior economist of the Congressionally chartered Commission on Fair Market Value Policy for Federal Coal Leasing (Linowes Commission) and as senior research manager of the President's Commission on Privatization. He has been a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution, visiting senior fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, research associate at the Center for Applied Social Sciences of The University of Zimbabwe; visiting professor at Keio University in Tokyo; visiting professor at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires; and visiting professor at the School of Economics of the University of the Philippines in Manila. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University (1971).
Areas of Writing and Research:
Dr. Nelson is a nationally recognized authority in the areas of (1) local zoning and property rights to housing in the United States; (2) the use and management of the public lands owned by the federal government in the American West; and (3) the normative foundations of economics and environmentalism and their often clashing ways of thinking about the world. He is a member of the environmental policy specialization of the School of Public Policy.
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4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
12 global ratings
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Top reviews from the United States
Clay GarnerTop Contributor: Philosophy
5.0 out of 5 stars ''Secular religions - usually grounded in in scientific claims - are actual categories of religion'' - page xxiiiReviewed in the United States on June 29, 2016
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This work deserves ten stars. Clear, persuasive, cogent, erudite. Uses history, religion, economics, politics as springboard to surprising conclusions. Neither arrogant nor fawning, Nelson offers insight that looks beneath the surface of common thinking. Presents both sides of many opinions. Well done. Contents -
Introduction: The market paradox
One - The laws of Economics as the new Word of God
1. Tenets of Economic Faith
2. A secular great awakening
Part Two - Theological Messages of Samuelson's Economics
3. The market mechanism as religious statement
4. Apostle of scientific management
Part Three - The Gods of Chicago
5. Frank Knight and original sin
6. Knight vs Friedman vs Stigler
7. Chicago vs the Ten Commandments
Part Four - Religion and the new institutional economics
8. A new economic world
9. Efficient religion
Part Five - Economics as Religion
10. God bless the market
11. A crisis of progress
Conclusion
Nelson explains in the preface that this book grew out of his work as an economist for the interior department. ''Indeed, the conflicts between economic and environmental values that dominated many of the policy outcomes during my years at the interior department are best understood as new variations on earlier religious disagreements among followers in branches of Jewish and Christian religion.'' (xxii) Preconceived ideas are difficult to see - and harder to change.
''There is a growing recognition at the beginning of the twenty first century that secular religions - usually grounded in scientific claims - are actual categories of religion, often now competing directly with more traditional faiths. . . . Robert Bellah finds that 'we can say that in contemporary society social science has usurped the traditional position of theology.' '' (xxii)
''This book, then, offers a theological exegesis of the contents of modern economic thought, regarding economic thinking as not only a source of technical understanding of economic events, but also for many economists and noneconmists alike a source of ultimate understanding of the world. It is a new kind of theological study of the most powerful set of religious beliefs, as I have come to conclude, of the modern era.'' (xxv) Nelson provides convincing evidence.
On page 266 Nelson offers a summary -
1. By the modern age traditional religion in the Judeo-Christian sense had lost much of its earlier authority in public life, thus posing a large transaction cost problem for the functioning of economic (as well as other) institutions in society.
2. Following Isaac Newton, much of the authority of traditional religion was transferred to science. Science became the dispenser of valid truth claims, and in this respect scientific knowledge was now seen as having the greatest religious authority in modern society.
3. Since the physical sciences had little to say about human affairs, the social sciences moved to and were successful in assuming the mantle of science - and also acquired the religious authority of science in matters of the economy, politics, and other spheres of social action.
4. Social science thus became the religion of the modern age . . .
5. As religious hopes for a secular salvation increasingly turned to economic events. . .
6. The success of economics in its religious function was to a significant extent independent of the degree of validity in the specific truth claims produced by economics as an analytical science - and in cases such as Marxism . . .
7. . . Economics as religion has been incapable of answering in a satisfactory way many of the fundamental questions that religion historically has been asked to address.
Easy to read, nevertheless, the switch Nelson makes from 'proven science' to 'theological insight' could be difficult for some.
Thirty one pages of excellent notes, eight page index. No photographs.
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Michael Emmett Brady
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting overall but major errors occur whenever Adam Smith is discussedReviewed in the United States on June 28, 2005
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This book is certainly worth buying .It is well written.It is probably true that,to some extent,Samuelson saw Keynesian ecomomics as a religious type gospel of reform.Undoubtedly,the Chicago school's libertarian atheism (of Milton Friedman and others)can be regarded as a type of religion.It is certainly true that Adam Smith's work has been so badly misinterpreted by practically all economists,including Nelson,that one could be convinced that Smith's Invisible Hand is based on some type of mysterious ,near religious belief.Nothing could be further from the truth.
Nelson totally misstates Adam Smith's position again and again and again throughout this book.There is not a single page in this book that, even remotely,provides the reader with a firm foundation about what Smith's system of classical liberty really entailed.Nelson's assessments of Smith's system are about as accurate as the entirely false claim that John Maynard Keynes was an advocate of deficit finance(Keynes was a stauch opponent of deficit finance throughout his life.It is simply false to state that Keynes favored deficit finannce).Nelson claims the following:" As Adam Smith now interpreted the natural laws of economics,governments that sought to interfere with the individual pursuit of self interest in the market were acting contrary to the devine plan.The results were only likely to cause wide social disruption and distress-just as would any government action that in the physical order might be foolishly taken in attempted defiance of the law of gravity".(Nelson,p.287 :see also,for example,pp.44,84,89,191,etc.).Nelson,Samuelson, Friedman,and the rest of the economics profession have it all wrong and upside down.Smith certainly recognized that the Invisible Hand process of the division of labor and labor specialization created great wealth and economic growth.However,he also clearly recognized that it simultaneously generated massive undepletable ,detrimental externalities impacting the entire work force that only government actions could reduce,mitigate,or minimize.This is all clearly stated on pp.734-741 of the Modern Library (Cannan)edition of the Wealth of Nations.Nelson's book is intellectually unsatisfactory in its present state.The Invisible Hand has absolutely nothing to do with God,Divine Providence,or religion at all.It is a purely human economic-social process that leads to positive changes over time in a society because both the individual and society(all other individuals) benefit from the additional expertise and training as new specializations are created over time . Unfortunately,this process also has a dark side that Smith recognizes can only be effectively dealt with by government action.Period.Nelson needs to read what Smith actually said and initiate substantial CHANGES IN HIS NEXT EDITION.
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Aurelian Dochia
5.0 out of 5 stars EnlighteningReviewed in the United States on January 8, 2013
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IN the last few years I was puzzled when seeing economists cannot agree on basic issues like what caused the crisis and what are the adequate remedies. Keynesian, Monetarist and Austrian schools of thought for example interpret the same facts in different ways to come out with conclusions that are frequently opposite. And nobody admits others may be right.
Robert Nelson's book made me understand that the great economists positions are driven by deep values, convictions, models of reasoning and mythical stories which have a religious essence and are embraced with a quasi-religious fervor.
This is a great book for whoever wants to take a peak through the veil of mathematical models, statistics and charts of economists' writings.
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umlungu
1.0 out of 5 stars Kindle Edition: end notes not activeReviewed in the United States on May 7, 2011
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This note relates to the kindle edition.
The content by the author is excellent. Amazon's conversion is not.
The text contains numbered endnotes. These notes are not active. The footnotes, marked with an * are active, and the numbered endnotes in the Introduction are active so its technically easy.
The only explanation is pure laziness by the Amazon staff who converted the text.
Since one can't flip easily to the end of the book as to check the contents of an endnote as one can with a deadwood copy, nor can one access the endnotes via the menu, this makes reading the content of an endnote very difficult. One must write down a note on paper that when one reaches the end of the book that one should check an endnote. That makes using the Kindle edition less convenient than using the deadwood version.
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Josh Schubert
Aug 04, 2021Josh Schubert rated it it was ok · review of another edition
I learned a lot more about the Chicago school of economics.
Nelson makes a good point about there being hidden value assumptions that economists make.
Also recognizing the huge influence of the social gospel on the American Economic Association you can see a lot of economics as a 'secular' religion. (less)
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Kirk Battle
May 21, 2013Kirk Battle rated it liked it
This one is by Robert H. Nelson, a classically trained economist who made a hobby out of cataloging when economists lapsed into creepy religious thinking and then turned it into an entire book. That's a teensy bit disingenuous in that Nelson is very earnest in his topic but it does describe the final product in that the man knows a stunning amount about economics. He does not know a lot about religion. This produces a book of amazing insights that sit next to freshmen level nonsense, making the book a touch bumpy.
Nelson starts by outlining the basic relationship between morality and economics. You need a certain amount of trust and security in your economy, like if a car mechanic fucks up my car I can feel secure that I can sue him in court or call the cops. Countries that lack this often have slow or weak markets because you reduce efficiency via bribes or murder or lack of basic civil rights, etc. So, Nelson posits, certain cultures and religions are going to get along better with free market capitalism if they allow for centralized authority, not stealing things, and a strong idea of private property.
And then down the rabbit hole we go. First he explains how someone like Marx or Keynes can be described as prophets. Then he talks about how both are predicting heaven on earth and utopias that can be achieved by economics. Marx is a pre-millenial prophet, in that he is saying the world will end and Keyne is a post-millenial, which means the world ended and now it will get better. The analogies grind on, economists say if we just manage efficiency properly life will be perfect. That's just like how Christians say if we manage sin heaven will happen. Or economists ignore the social costs of free markets/privitization for the greater good, just like Christians ignore mortal suffering for heaven.
His idea for an economic religion is: private property is a necessary albeit shitty reality of living in scarcity. Self-interest is good for your economy, but it also can't exceed certain limits. Your basic three sins in any economic system are:
1) Don't charge different people different prices for the same good.
2) Don't allow sellers and buyers to get into collusion and rig prices.
3) Don't allow people to take advantage of supply shortages by charging high prices in emergencies.
The problem is that this already exists. For centuries. Mostly because breaking those rules will get you killed or worse. So the book shifts into a culture study and importance of a religion that introduces morals that constructively limit self-interest.
The book is okay overall, it was published in 2000. Like most academic texts it peaks about half-way through, rattles off a few more clever ideas, and then spends the final 1/4 dry humping your brain with leftover notes and ideas. Like sober sex with a stranger. Socially speaking, it should be seen as a precursor to the big things going on today like reassessing risk, the 2008 crash, and the secular crisis we are experiencing today.
I liked the ending, where he talked about the 2000 Republican Nomination going to Bush instead of McCain. He said it was a pretty strong indicator that the economic ideologies and secular beliefs about government had won. Much to the party's detriment.
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