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The New Holy Wars
Economic Religion Versus Environmental Religion in Contemporary America
416 pages | 6.125 x 9.25 | 2010
Cloth edition is not available
ISBN 978-0-271-03582-6 | paper: $24.95
Winner of the 2010 Eric Hoffer Award and the 2010 silver medal in the category of Finance, Investment, and Economics of the Independent Publisher Book Awards
“Anyone who wants to understand twenty-first-century politics should begin with The New Holy Wars, which makes clear the fundamental conflict between how economists and environmentalists see the world.” —Andrew P. Morriss, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
“Nelson compellingly argues that religion is a powerful force in economic and social life, . . . even if that fact is seldom recognized by most academics and policy makers. The dominant religious influences are secularized versions of Catholicism and Protestantism, not because the leading scholars are piously trying to advance their faith by other means, but because their intellectual horizons have been shaped by worldviews that have framed their consciousness. He convinces me that unless these presuppositions are acknowledged, examined, broadened, and revised, the economic and ecological crises that the world now faces will not be understood or met at their deeper levels.” —Max L. Stackhouse, Princeton Theological Seminary
“Robert Nelson argues that environmentalism is a religion. . . . This provocative thesis raises hard and embarrassing questions about the bases of environmentalism that every serious student of the subject must confront.” —Dan Tarlock, Chicago-Kent College of Law
“Nelson makes an overwhelmingly persuasive case that in our times the leading secular religion was once economics and is now environmentalism. . . . Out of that utterly original idea for scholarly crossovers—good Lord, an economist reading environmentalism and even economics itself as theology!—come scores of true and striking conclusions. . . . It’s a brilliant book, which anyone who cares about the economy or the environment or religion needs to read. That’s most of us.” —Deirdre McCloskey, University of Illinois at Chicago
The present debate raging over global warming exemplifies the clash between two competing public theologies. On one side, environmentalists warn of certain catastrophe if we do not take steps now to reduce the release of greenhouse gases; on the other side, economists are concerned with whether the benefits of actions to prevent higher temperatures will be worth the high costs. Questions of the true and proper relationship of human beings and nature are as old as religion. Today, environmentalists regard human actions to warm the climate as an immoral challenge to the natural order, while economists seek to put all of nature to maximum use for economic growth and other human benefits.
Robert Nelson interprets such contemporary struggles as battles between the competing secularized religions of economics and environmentalism. The outcome will have momentous consequences for us all. This deep book probes beneath the surface of the two movements rhetoric to uncover their fundamental theological commitments and visions.
Robert H. Nelsonis a professor at the School of Public Policy of the University of Maryland and a Senior Fellow of The Independent Institute. Among his previous books is Economics as Religion: From Samuelson to Chicago and Beyond (Penn State, 2001).
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Economic and Environmental Religions
Part I: The False God of Economic Salvation
1 What Is Economic Theology?
2 Theologies of 9/11
3 How Much Is God Worth?
4 Sustainability, Efficiency, and God
5 All in the Name of Progress
Part II: Environmental Calvinism
6 Unoriginal Sin
7 Calvinism Minus God
Part III: Environmental Creationism
8 Ecological Science as a Creation Story
9 Environmental Creationism and Christian Creationism
10 Re-creating the Creation
11 Environmental Colonialism: Saving Africa from Africans
Part IV: Environmentalism and Libertarianism
12 Frank Knight and Economic Calvinism
13 Libertarian Environmentalism
Conclusion: Religious Challenges
Notes
Index