No Rising Tide: Theology, Economics, and the Future

by Joerg Rieger

Even though economic downturns are still followed by upturns, fewer people benefit from them. As a result, economic crisis is an everyday reality that permanently affects all levels of our lives. The logic of downturn, developed in this book, helps make sense of what is going on, as the economy shapes us more deeply than we had ever realized, not only our finances and our work, but also our relationships, our thinking, and even our hopes and desires. Religion is one arena shaped by economics and thus part of the problem but, as Joerg Rieger shows, it might also hold one of the keys for providing alternatives, since it points to energies for transformation and justice. Rieger's hopeful perspective unfolds in stark contrast to an economy and a religion that thrive on mounting inequality and differences of class.

Genres: Theology, Economics, Religion, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Joerg Rieger is Wendland-Cook Professor of Constructive Theology at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

Reviews

[Brooks Robinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Joerg Rieger adds nothing to this discussion in any meaningful way ( how many other text's are out there that critique trickle down economics?). Fine, if you want to critique free market capitalism and global capitalism, there is plenty of fodder there to criticize, but his criticism of Adam Smith is a bit far-fetched if you take the time to *actually* read Smith (the "invisible hand" is an off the cuff remark in Wealth of Nations). It also isn't clear how Rieger's talk of markets functions within his text. For example, is it market qua market that leads to greed and the other problems? The impression is that it is indeed the "market's" fault. But how does Rieger understand the market and what it does?

[Adulin Prophete · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Rieger has an incredible way of constructing critical theological reflection, particularly in this book, in order to discover and make use of new impulses and energies that can reshape our images of God and ultimate reality.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every preacher in America needs to read this book. I go back and forth on whether it's a great book or not, but it's useful, and we all need it. Theologians are always saying that sort of thing, but hear me out here.

You couldn't write this book so accessibly and also make it a game-changer for systematic theology, or (I assume) for economics. What it does is make connections between them that desperately need making. Regular readers of policy and economic thought between, say, Ezra Klein and Doug Henwood will find little news here; likewise theologians versed in the line that runs historically from early Barth to the high liberationism of the '80s. But those are both specialist discourses, the stuff of seminary doctorates and Internet wonkery. They really belong together, in the pulpits of mainline churches, giving preachers insight into Scripture and their people's lives that their congregations could never hear otherwise.

I recall vividly the first time I preached on economics. The text that week was an extract from the Sermon on the Mount, but it could have been almost anything: Jesus talks about money a lot. So I talked about the Sermon on the Mount and Elizabeth Warren on middle-class economic insecurity. The result was revelatory. I've seen stronger congregational responses to preaching, but not often. Not that I was that awesome; looking back on my text, it could have been better in every way. But I'd stumbled on a hunger people didn't realize they had. This congregation of do-gooder liberals was terrified of their economic future. They'd learned how to fight for equal marriage, but not for jobs and education and health care. Rieger is diagnosing, not prescribing. But the prescriptions will come from organizing-- and this is a book that'll get you wanting to organize.

Rieger spends the first chapters of his book laying out how "mainline" economics and religion have co-evolved in twentieth-century America. It's an insightful label, referring generally to the predominant beliefs of the White middle class. Readers of Warren or Jacob S. Hacker won't be surprised by this volume's narration of that middle class's decline since the '70s, but Rieger's account is pithy and clear, if obviously dependent on his sources. If you don't already know this story, this isn't a bad place to learn it-- and one place or another, you really should.

What is crucial here is Rieger's call for doubt. The exponents of markets-- in our public discourse, and in the churches themselves-- are constantly making claims about them that look suspiciously divine. We must trust the gods markets, or they will turn on us. Their power is infinite, as is their benevolence to those who will serve them. They are omnipresent-- or rather, their absence is hell. The spectacle of Pentecostals laying hands on the bull on Wall Street in late 2008, praying for and to the market for prosperity's return, is not some fringe excess, but this highly mainstream attitude made visible. (The bull is instructive enough on his own. Tourists routinely touch him for good luck. Guess where.) It's not uncommon for preachers to describe money, greed, or success as an idol. The move Rieger makes, to markets themselves, is much more unusual-- I'm not sure I'd ever heard it before in quite those terms-- but once you've heard it, it's obvious and has explanatory power.

How do we come to worship the market? It has to do, Rieger persuasively argues, with the shaping of our desires. Our god, Rieger quotes Luther, is that to which our hearts cling. I quibble with Rieger on the power of advertising: He thinks it really works; I'm not sure the evidence will support that. Nevertheless, there are ample theoretical accounts out there of how capitalism tends to reshape human desire away from need, and Rieger will lead you to others if you want them.

There aren't a lot of ways forward here. Rieger won't paint us a socialist utopia, which is a mercy. But there is truth, and insight, and a usable past. Go and read it. You won't be sorry.

[Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall this is an excellent book. Rieger does a great job of connecting theology and economics. He points out how the most common theological concepts help to preserve the economic status quo. Conversely, a conceptual shift in theology is necessary for any reform of economics.

One problem I had is that Rieger from early on talks about alternatives that he will get to later. He never really does this. Luckily, this also means he doesn't make the cliche Christian ethical call for socialism or something similar. But he doesn't really articulate a realistic alternative to contemporary American capitalism.

[Bill]

This book will go on my special shelf of books that profoundly impacted me. So many cogent insights about the failures and idolatry of free market economics and a clarion call for followers of Jesus to be resistance to this idolatry and to incarnate a vision that is solidarity with "the least of these". 3.9 Martinie glasses

[Daryl Grigsby]

timely and necessary