A comment on Divine Economy: Theology and the Market

Citation

Gao Z (2008) A comment on Divine Economy: Theology and the Market. Logos and Pneuma - Chinese Journal of Theology, (28), pp. 275-287.

Abstract
Stephen Long is one of the representatives of radical orthodoxy. In his critical work, Divine Economy: Theology and the Market, he discusses and appraises three strategies assumed by contemporary theologians to deal with the questions of economics. Following the theological approaches of John Milbank, Long assumes a critical posture to the Webrian strategy of fact-value distinction and to the theological approaches that make theology relevant to economics in this way. In his view, theology agreeing with the autonomy of social science means theology abandoning specific theological language and the centricity of christology and ecclesiology when it deals with economic questions, so that the Christian virtues are retreating from economic life and replaced by the "utility" of capitalism, which makes economic life tend to nihilism. Long strictly maintains the orthodoxy of theology, the richness and the indispensability of traditional theological language, and claims that theology should become the metanarrative of social science, in order to adjust economic life to the telos of God.

Journal
Logos and Pneuma - Chinese Journal of Theology, Issue 28

People

Dr Zhe Gao

Senior Lecturer, Religion