Economics and Technology

Abstract

The editors have charged me, on the basis of this book's case studies, to opine whether it is “intellectually defensible and actually fruitful” to combine economics with religion in constructing “normative social theory.” My evaluation concerns more the fruitfulness of any such combination but draws no grand conclusions, because the authors of most of the case studies under review evince little desire to achieve any real combination of economics and theology. The contributions of A.M.C. Waterman (ch. 3) and Jacob Neusner (ch. 1) are exceptions; interestingly, however, they are largely reviews of past attempts to combine economics with religion. The other case studies bespeak an attitude that, today, economics has little to add to a theological approach to social theory. What might bear fruit, another time with other authors, cannot be deduced.

Alien they seemed to be; No mortal eye could see The intimate welding of their later history. (Thomas Hardy, The Convergence of the Twain)