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Dotan Leshem recasts the history of the West from an economic perspective, revealing the significant role of Christian theology in shaping economic and political thought. He begins with early Christianity engagement with economic knowledge and the influence of this interaction on politics and philosophy. He then follows the secularization of economics in liberal and neoliberal theory. Only by radically relocating the origins of modernity in late antiquity, Leshem argues, can we confront neoliberalism.
Dotan Leshem reveals the role of Christian theology in shaping economic and political thought. Beginning with early Christianity engagement with economic knowledge, he follows the secularization of economics in liberal and neoliberal theory. Only by relocating the origins of modernity in late antiquity, Leshem argues, can we confront neoliberalism.
The Origins of Neoliberalism demonstrates that histories of economic thought can no longer ignore pre-modernity and that political economy owes more to theological rationality than its modern exponents are willing to avow.
Gil Anidjar, author of Blood: A Critique of Christianity:This dazzling book takes us on an intellectual journey of rare substance. It demonstrates that our current predicament—the dominance of economic 'rationality,' the imperatives of growth—is at once newer and older, narrower and broader, than we have been taught. This is a humbling and teaching book that will change, that must change, the way we conceive of the economic in its relation to the political, the philosophical, and the theological. An economist and a philosopher, Leshem writes with masterful intensity and compellingly calls for an extraordinary transformation, for an 'ethical economy,' for nothing less than a new political philosophy.
John Milbank, author of Beyond Secular Order: The Representation of Being and the Representation of the People:In my opinion, this work is the most significant text so far in the field of what has come to be termed 'political theology.' Through his wide-ranging and careful scholarship, Leshem shows the extent to which a theological, biblically based dimension totally altered the operative categories of political virtue.
Étienne Balibar, author of Violence and Civility: On the Limits of Political Philosophy:Dotan Leshem's important book makes a very powerful and original contribution to an increasingly significant discussion across different disciplines. Its consistency, erudition, and relevance for contemporary research into the 'theological' genealogy of economy and government is impressive indeed.
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