Economics as Religion: From Samuelson to Chicago and Beyond

Front Cover
Penn State Press, 2001 - 378 pages

In this study, Robert H. Nelson explores the genesis, the prophets, the prophesies, and the tenets of what he sees as a religion of economics that has come into full blossom in latter-day America. Nelson does not see &"theology&" as a bad word, and his examination of the theology underlying Samuelsonian and Chicagoan economics is not a put-down. It is a way of seeing the rhetoric of fundamental belief&—what has been called &"vision.&"

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Contents

The Market Paradox
1
part ONE THE LAWS OF ECONOMICS AS THE NEW WORD OF
21
part TWO THEOLOGICAL MESSAGES OF SAMUELSONS ECONOMICS
49
23
64
35
78
52
88
part THREE THE GODS OF CHICAGO
113
Frank Knight and Original
119
SEVEN Chicago Versus the Ten Commandments
166
part FOUR RELIGION AND THE NEW INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS
203
NINE
230
part FIVE ECONOMICS AS RELIGION
261
ELEVEN A Crisis of Progress
303
Conclusion
325
Notes
339
Index
371

SIX Knight Versus Friedman Versus Stigler
139

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About the author (2001)

Robert H. Nelson has had wide government experience in the application of economics to public policy and is Professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Maryland. He is the author of Reaching for Heaven on Earth: The Theological Meaning of Economics (1991).

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