God and the Financial Crisis

A fundamental belief in personal liberty and in the ability of free markets to realise the good lies at the heart of the neoliberal economic orthodoxy that has now shaped public policy for a generation. Confidence in orthodox economics has, however, been badly shaken by the financial crisis of 2008 and, in the years following, by the effects of the Great Recession. The era of casino banking was not only an era of de-industrialisation and under-employment, but also of iniquitous tax avoidance schemes, and of grotesquely inflated levels of social inequality. Such factors, we now realise, have reduced the life-prospects of millions of our fellow-citizens. This interdisciplinary volume of essays, with wide-ranging contributions by theologians and social scientists, explores the theological, economic, and moral implications of these developments. Its central claim is that neoliberalism's failure to appreciate the limitations of its fiduciary commitments contributed massively to the economic crisis. A more honest appraisal of the relation between the language of belief and the sphere of economic behaviour is therefore required. This must also result in appropriate policy changes, to harness the power of the economy to serve a more generous vision of the human good.