Challenging Capitalism as Religion: Hans G. Ulrich's Theological and Ethical Reflections On the Economy

The following article starts by summarising how much modern capitalism is characterised by its religious structure. The world of branding — consumer goods becoming religiously attractive — and religious metaphors that have become necessary to describe contemporary neoliberalism are key examples. A s...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Palaver, Wolfgang 1958- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Sage 2007
In: Studies in Christian ethics
Year: 2007, Volume: 20, Issue: 2, Pages: 215-230
Further subjects:B highest good / summum bonum
B Economy
B worries
B Religion
B Walter Benjamin
B Hans G. Ulrich
B Capitalism
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Electronic
Description
Summary:The following article starts by summarising how much modern capitalism is characterised by its religious structure. The world of branding — consumer goods becoming religiously attractive — and religious metaphors that have become necessary to describe contemporary neoliberalism are key examples. A second step consists in describing four typical aspects of religious capitalism in the following of Walter Benjamin's fragment `Capitalism as Religion' from 1921. Against this background I thirdly summarise Hans G. Ulrich's theological ethics concerning the economy. At the centre of Ulrich's ethics we find his emphasis on God's economy that relieves us from all our worries enabling us thereby to become cooperators of God acting and working in an ethical way. A final step discusses Ulrich's rejection of an ethics of striving for God as the summum bonum by showing that desire or will do not necessarily contradict with the priority of God's grace.
ISSN:0953-9468
Contains:Enthalten in: Studies in Christian ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/0953946807079852