tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post1662905018462871845..comments2024-03-26T11:33:59.219-06:00Comments on Religion in American History: Christianity and the "Specter of Capitalism"Paul Harveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13881964303772343114noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-52749397024429296542013-04-17T22:01:54.056-06:002013-04-17T22:01:54.056-06:00"Capitalism" is such a problematic and u..."Capitalism" is such a problematic and usually unhelpful term. On one philosophy blog I spent years with [actually an old fashioned "list" as in "listserv"] some very sharp philosophy types went 'round endlessly on what it even is.<br /><br />Such a waste of perfectly good brainpower.<br /><br />To the leftperson, capitalism's a self-evidently bad thing, the semi-institutionalized exploitation of labor by capital. The only remedy is explicitly setting our political institutions to reverse the structural imbalance.<br /><br />However, from POV of the "Puritan/Protestant work ethic" postulated by Max Weber [if not Ben Franklin] to Adam Smith's "invisible hand" [tempered to be sure by a Christian charity/fellow-feeling empathy], capitalism is a synonym for free enterprise and free markets that produce plenty for all.<br /><br />Be fruitful and multiply.<br /><br />One of the unnoticed victories of the David Barton-Peter Marshall Great Texas Textbook Massacre was the implantation of "free enterprise" as a self-evident good.<br /><br />http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter118/ch118a.html<br /><br />IIRC, in place of the previous curriculum's use of "capitalism." Capitalism has become a morally ambiguous term if not an outright pejorative, but what's not to like about "free enterprise?"<br /><br />There is a manifest tension [as noted by historian/demographer Colin McEvedy] that the Southern European Roman Catholic countries gravitated to more communitarian economic models whereas the Reformation countries were far more entrepreneurial. No coincidence, then, that the sick economies of Europe today ["PIGS"] would be the Catholic ones.<br /><br />So I'm looking forward to the smoking guns of this interesting thesis. I have no problem with a historical Catholic disposition toward communitarianism over free enterprise, but the Protestant component of modern American communitarianism--leftism if you will--could just as easily be attributed to the convergence of mainline Protestantism with secular modernity rather than to a "social Gospel" politics ala Catholic Worker.<br /><br />But that's just a guess.<br /><br /><br />Tom Van Dykehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07121072404143877596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-29334340326500124652013-04-17T21:41:29.382-06:002013-04-17T21:41:29.382-06:00Chip, thanks for your comment. I'm with you 1...Chip, thanks for your comment. I'm with you 100%!Heathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04150802497510920137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-22775095307319974652013-04-17T21:40:15.587-06:002013-04-17T21:40:15.587-06:00Just getting to these comments now.
Janine, my ...Just getting to these comments now. <br /><br />Janine, my sense from my own research is that evangelical-corporate partnerships extend back at least to the years immediately following the Civil War. This was certainly the case in Chicago. I would agree with you that investigations into the lives of ministers and those into the lives of ordinary workers/laypersons might yield very different stories. Again, this has definitely proved true in my own research.<br /><br />RYS, I think you make apt points here and ask some very intriguing questions as well. On the corporate side of things, the focus on Protestants may have something to do with an attempt to follow the money (and power), though I'll let those who are writing those books speak for themselves. <br />Heathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04150802497510920137noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-48411218125750978902013-04-17T12:34:08.637-06:002013-04-17T12:34:08.637-06:00Great observations.
One of the major blindspots ...Great observations. <br /><br />One of the major blindspots of these new lines of research, however, is that within the new work on religion and capitalism (corporate or otherwise), there is an assumption that religion=Protestant and, most of the time, conservative Protestant at that. More contextualization -- especially mapping the religious backgrounds of business owners and leaders would be useful, especially in showing whether corporate Protestantism/Christianity was niche or typical. Did Catholic business leaders work from the same templates? What about Jewish business owners, from investment banking founders to department store magnates and general store owners? In more recent times, what about Asian Christian or Buddhist or Hindu corporate leadership? How has the influx of workers from East and South Asia in the tech fields altered (the) business (of) religion?ryshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12882440247801628442noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-80343847879374004552013-04-17T08:31:01.786-06:002013-04-17T08:31:01.786-06:00Excellent comments, Heath. I look forward to an ab...Excellent comments, Heath. I look forward to an abundant field of new work exploring the overwhelming effects that capitalism has had on all aspects of religious practice and imagination.rjchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12447486006327105309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-66306313663968926442013-04-17T08:29:37.647-06:002013-04-17T08:29:37.647-06:00Heath, you make such a good point here about the ...Heath, you make such a good point here about the "problem" of different periodizations of current research. I agree, of course, that this is just a temporary problem and that further research should (will) bring these current regions of exploration together. <br /><br />But, I also wonder if the difference in current approach also indicates a more significant difference in the "problems" each of us see as worth unraveling. To what extent is this current version of evangelical cheering for "capitalism" a post FDR phenomenon? Or, to what extent ought it be understood as another version of a very long love affair between the two (a relationship which really needs a longer purview to understand)? <br /><br />Also, I think Gutman was right that there is still a difference between following the paper trail of influential pastors and evangelists and following that of the workers within their work communities. I wonder how Jarod's newest work on working class Christianity in the South will compare with Dochuk's examinations of influential proto-fundamentalist and fundamentalist preachers there. When did pastors become such economic authorities (as they were in the 1930s)? Surely this was not always the case, (right)?<br /><br />I hope that further examinations of "capitalism" and "the working class" keep on going and that they both stay near to the field of "Labor and Working Class History." I rely on both of these approaches in teaching and lecturing. One book cannot necessarily do both of these things, but the field really has to do both so that we can keep our students aware of how capitalism works and also how important workers are to its function through their cooperation and resistance.<br /><br /><br />Janine Giordano Drakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15743145462085629472noreply@blogger.com