Devin Singh

Divine Currency

The Theological Power of Money in the West

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Devin Singh is Assistant Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 296
• Erscheinungstermin: 10. April 2018
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 227mm x 155mm x 20mm
• Gewicht: 425g
• ISBN-13: 9781503605664
• ISBN-10: 1503605663
• Artikelnr.: 48862737

Autorenporträt

Devin Singh is Assistant Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
Introduction: Introduction
chapter abstract
The introduction situates the study amidst current inquiries into religion
and economy. It explains why such works are often impressionistic,
reactionary, or lacking in sustained analysis of real relationships between
theological discourse and monetary practice. It claims that a
genealogically and historically informed approach improves the current
conversation, which is dominated by allusive explorations of the supposed
affinities between theology and the market. It also makes the case that a
political dimension to the study of money is needed in order to link the
investigation to current inquiries into political theology. It briefly
introduces studies of the links between economy and Christian thought by
Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben, explaining how this study follows
their intuitions and noting where it diverges. It explains the importance
of metaphor and homology between money and theology and provides an
overview of the book chapters.
One: Incarnation and Imperial Economy
chapter abstract
This chapter explains why the Christian idea of incarnation is laden with
political and economic themes and why it has validated imperial expansion
through economy. It first takes up Giorgio Agamben's recent genealogy of
sovereign power and government in the West in The Kingdom and the Glory.
Although Agamben explores the idea of economy (oikonomia), he leaves
unexamined central economic elements such as the circulation of very real
material goods and money, as well as ideas of value, profit motive, and
representation. Oikonomia refers concretely to household economies, the
financial and administrative governance of cities, and God's providential,
economic management of the goods of creation. The chapter then focuses on
Eusebius of Caesarea as one key ancient witness, who claims that
incarnation is timed to the height of Roman imperial unification to reveal
aspects of divine government and economy.
Two: The Divine Economist
chapter abstract
This chapter considers the divine agent or operator of the oikonomia. While
Michel Foucault notes the importance of the divine shepherd trope for
eventual governmentality, he does not consider God as the economist who
validates pastoral and imperial economies. The chapter recovers a theology
of the heavenly governor who is also a steward that oversees and allots
resources to creation. Eusebius provides a template for God as cosmic
steward and economic manager who operates implicitly behind Christian
imperial regimes. Exploring the late antique role of bishops as managers of
congregations and church funds, the chapter goes on to suggest that this
divine economist informs pastoral practice. Such practice is taken up by
Constantine and imported into state policy once Christianity becomes the
state sanctioned religion. The discussion shows how the divine economist as
a submerged trope comes to inform emerging state administration in the
West.
Three: The Emperor's Righteous Money
chapter abstract
Through a close reading of his Life of Constantine, this chapter shows
Eusebius's attention to imperial monetary economy and his understanding of
how money functioned in Constantine's rule. The emperor represents himself
and his piety on coinage, much as the Father represents himself in the
world through the Son. Eusebius integrates a long tradition of Greek
concern about the relationship between money and government, particularly
in his critique of tyrants. Constantine's economic generosity means he is
not tyrannical and reflects the nature of the economy of the God he serves.
Eusebius is decisive in linking an awareness of money's role in sovereignty
to language about God's activity in managing creation through Constantine.
Because Constantine so closely images what God's reign is like, the
emperor's economic administration offers a framework for theological
descriptions of God's economic government.
Four: The Coin of God
chapter abstract
This chapter explores the ancient Christian idea of Christ as currency and
coin. It shows how minting coins to announce the arrival of a new ruler to
the throne is an idea that turns up in Christian talk about the arrival of
the divine king. Redeemed humans are described as reminted and refreshed
coins, and they signal the kingship of God who coins them. This reveals a
submerged idea, operating implicitly in patristic thought, of the divine
Son as the minting stamp that impresses the image of God on the coins of
humanity. The chapter draws out the implication that, in the incarnation of
the Son as Christ, this stamp materializes as the chief coin of the Father.
This theology is used theopolitically to enforce imperial power through the
use of coin propaganda and monetary policy.
Five: Redemptive Commerce
chapter abstract
This chapter retrieves a central Christian idea of salvation depicted as a
ransom exchange, which makes monetary transaction a primary site for
conveying how God redeems humankind. Gregory of Nyssa's narrative of a
ransom exchange between God and Satan serves as a window into this
theological schema. Through close analysis, the chapter shows how he draws
on the logic of moneylending as well as ideas of debt slavery, with Christ
as the redemptive payment that sets humanity free. According to this
central Christian idea, God establishes peace through a form of economic
transaction. The chapter concludes by showing that Gregory of Nyssa depicts
God as reciprocally entrapping Satan in a form of debt bondage, a depiction
that may offer divine valorization of predatory lending practices.
Six: Of Payment, Debt, and Conquest
chapter abstract
This chapter considers the flip side that always accompanies ideologies of
peace through economy: the violent imposition of the economy and its use to
vanquish opposition and subdue opponents. As Gregory recounts, God undoes
the devil's power by means of a ransom payment-which turns out to be more
like a loan or even required tax obligation-cancelling this debt over
humanity and bringing Satan into submission to God. Satanic territory is
colonized through economic annexation by oikonomia. Payment serves divine
conquest and resonates with ancient practices of the Roman Empire drawing
new lands into its imperial territory by economic means. This theological
account provides clues to how monetary and broader economic practices gain
a spiritual hue and how the state's use of economy to regulate bodies and
populations acquires a type of sacred prestige.
Conclusion: Conclusion
chapter abstract
The conclusion foregrounds questions of genealogy and developing Western
legacy. It considers how the ideas discovered in the study-notions of God
as an economic administrator and as saving currency-interact with the
emerging institutions and ideologies that shape Western imagination. It
considers the Reformation, when ideas of spiritual credit, value, and
obligation, always related to political and divine authority, may have
informed nascent capitalism. Such themes can also be glimpsed in colonial
expansion, where the idea of using the economy to overcome opposition and
bring supposed salvation to others was centrally operative. The chapter
points the way to further research that might trace the various
transformations of this fundamental union in Christian thought between a
model of God and monetary economy.