The Church of Economism

Mine was the modernist generation brought up on the Huxleys, HG Wells, GB Shaw and Bertrand Russell.

Keynes and the Atom Bomb were probably the two factors which helped us brush aside the doubts about modernity which had plagued the inter-war generation and place our faith firmly in science. And the new discipline of Economics was part of our new-found confidence. It was Gordon Brown’s fate to pronounce the “end of boom and bust” just before the global financial system imploded in 2007. But economists have established themselves for at least 50 years as the new priesthood on whose words we all hang……. 

That is slowly changing - 2008, of course, should have been the death knell for economics since it had succumbed some decades earlier to a highly-simplified and unrealistic model of the economy which was then starkly revealed in all its nakedness…..Steve Keen was one of the first economists to break ranks very publicly way back in 2001 and to set out an alternative - Debunking Economics – the naked emperor dethroned.

This coincided with economics students in Paris objecting to the homogeneity of syllabi and reaching out to others – creating in the next 15 years a movement which has become global. This is a good presentation on the issues (from 2012) and an excellent little Penguin book The Econocracy – the perils of leaving economics to the exerts by Joe Earle, Cahal Moran and Zach Ward-Perkins (2017) is based on their experience of stirring things up on the Manchester University economics programme. The book’s sub-title says it all! 

But the groundwork for the challenge to the what some have called the imperialist grab of economics had been laid much earlier – with EJ Mishan’s “The Costs of Economic Growth” (1967); Schumacher’s “Small is Beautiful – economics as if people mattered” (1973) and Hazel Henderson’s “Creating Alternative Futures” (1978)

And it was some 2 decades ago that the notion of economics as a religion was first aired; and has become an increasingly serious proposition – as you will see from this table I have constructed. 

I still remember the moment when I realised that the scholastic disputes during the Reformation were exactly the same as can be found amongst contemporary economists. I was reading Diarmaid MacCulloch’s large volume about the Reformation in my kitchen in Bishkek in 2005 or so when it suddenly became so obvious. But, until I did this table, Susan George and Brian Davey were the only people I knew making this argument. But yesterday I came across of Rapley’s “Twilight of the Money Gods” and googling unearthed the rest…… 

Those wanting a good short intro to the subject might want to read Richard Norgaard’s article Church of Economism and its Discontents

Key Books on the subject of Economics (and management) as the new religion

Title	Author’s background	Comment
Faith and Credit – the World Bank’s Secular Empire Susan George and Fabrizzio Sabelli (1994)	Political scientist and activist – and anthropological economist	The first book I remember making this argument
Economics and religion – are they distinct? HG Brennan and A Watermann (1994)	Brennan is a political Philosopher	A new discovery for me
The Faith of the Managers – when management becomes a religion; Stephen Pattison (1997)	UK Management and theology	The only title which seems to make the connection
Economics as Religion – from Samuelson to Chicago and Beyond ; Robert H Nelson 2001	US Economist with strong interest in history of the discipline and environment	Nelson was a very distinguished academic
Political Economy and Theology since the Enlightenment; A Watermann 2004	Economist	Very thorough exploration
From economics imperialism to Freakonomics Ben Finer (2009)	UK Economist
Is God an Economist? By S. Wagner-Tsukamoto 2009	Interdisciplinary scholar
Economics as Good and Evil -= the quest for economic meaning Thomas Sedlacek (2011)	Economist	And, as a very young man, was adviser to Vaclev Havel
Credo - economic beliefs in a world in crisis; Brian Davey (2014)	Started in economics and moved to community development
Twilight of the Money Gods – economics as religion and how it all went wrong John Rapley 2017 – book can be read here	Development economist who mixes practice with theory	And changes his career path – at one stage becoming a journalist
Bettering Humanomics – a new , and old, approach to economic science; Deirdre McCloskey (2021)	US Economic historian	And a superb writer – although this book makes no concessions
Religion and the rise of capitalism; Benjamin Friedman (2021)	US economist	Detailed book which moves from Adam Smith to focus on US

  Those wanting a good short intro to the subject might want to read Richard Norgarrd’s article Church of Economism and its Discontents