1. God’s Economy Midterm – Draft – Not the final version, but certainly what you need to
know
Several of these overlap – If I were studying for this exam, I would study by writing short essays
on each of these topics, and going back to my notes and the reading to make sure they are
thorough.
Four Questions:
I Dynamics Between Secularization and religion
How do different theorists imagine the relationship between secularization and religion
(Casanova, Gauchet, Taylor, Lough, Weber, look also at the first reading of the term)?
II Methods of Approaching the Impact of Religion
What is the difference in approach between the theorists we looked at (vulgar Marxism, Weber,
Lough, Taylor, Asad – Where is the engine for change (i.e. ideas, material relations)? What is
the field of contestation (intellectual, emotional, material, social imaginaries, sensorial)? What is
the significance of the different approaches – what kinds of answers do they give for why things
happen, and how to engage with the process?
III Political-Economic Theologies
What are the kinds off political-economic sensibilities that emerge along with religious ones?
Think of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Anabaptists, Puritans, Great Awakenings I and II and the
Deists.
IV Dynamics Between Theology and Economics
Be able to support at least the following, with examples – economics systems as inspired by
religious cultures, economics works like religion or resonates with religion, religious cultures a
response to economic changes
IV NeoLiberal Philosophy
What is Friedman’s argument in the essay you read and the talk I gave (I spoke about historical
progress, capitalist efficiency, creativity, the paternalism of bureaucracies and centralized
planning and the connection between economic and political liberties)? Strong and weak points?
If you don’t have good notes from the talk – look him up on line.