The Market as "God"?

This article explores two lines of inquiry. The first is related to the production of human subjectivities in relation to market ideology and practices. What kinds of human subjectivities are produced when people worship the market as “God”? The market and its values of hyper‐competition become idol...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Dialog : a journal of theology 2016-03, Vol.55 (1), p.42-49
Main Author: Day, Keri
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
capital
Christianity
God
Market economies
markets
poverty
Religion
theological anthropology
Theology
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:This article explores two lines of inquiry. The first is related to the production of human subjectivities in relation to market ideology and practices. What kinds of human subjectivities are produced when people worship the market as “God”? The market and its values of hyper‐competition become idols as people overly direct their energy toward earning and accumulating financial and social capital in order to find meaning and worth. Worshiping the market reflects a perverted anthropology. The second line of inquiry is related to the language of sacrifice intrinsic to both free market logic and Western Christian theology. Could Christian theology, even unwittingly, reinforce the problem of sacrifice in market logic, which justifies forms of human loss (such as chronic poverty) in order to promote long‐term economic growth and greater human wellbeing? 
ISSN:0012-2033
1540-6385
DOI:10.1111/dial.12223