1800s
19th century
A01=Stewart Davenport
america
american
antebellum
Author_Stewart Davenport
belief
capitalism
Category=KCS
Category=QRM
Category=QRVS2
christian
christianity
clerical
economic
economy
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
era
ethical
ethics
faith
finance
financial
god
historical
history
income
marketplace
money
morals
primary sources
protestant
protestantism
religion
religious studies
social
time period
united states
usa
wealth
western
Product details
- ISBN 9780226137063
- Weight: 510g
- Dimensions: 16 x 24mm
- Publication Date: 01 May 2008
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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What did Protestants in America think about capitalism when capitalism was first something to be thought about? The Bible told antebellum Christians that they could not serve both God and mammon, but in the midst of the market revolution most of them simultaneously held on to their faith while working furiously to make a place for themselves in a changing economic landscape. In "Friends of the Unrighteous Mammon", Stewart Davenport explores this paradoxical partnership of transcendent religious values and earthly, pragmatic objectives, ultimately concluding that religious and ethical commitments, rather than political or social forces, shaped responses to market capitalism in the northern states in the antebellum period.Drawing on diverse primary sources, Davenport identifies three distinct Christian responses to market capitalism: assurance from clerical economists who believed in the righteousness of economic development; opposition from contrarians who resisted the changes around them; and adaptation by the pastoral moralists who modified their faith to meet the ethical challenges of the changing economy.
Delving into the minds of antebellum Christians as they considered themselves, their God, and their developing American economy, "Friends of the Unrighteous Mammon" is an ambitious intellectual history of an important development in American religious and economic life.
Stewart Davenport is assistant professor of history at Pepperdine University.
