Religion and the Market: Opposition, Absorption, or Ambiguity?

Abstract

This article addressed the complex relationship between religion and the market by proposing three basic paradigms, and then applying them to contemporary Christian social thought (or social ethics). The first conflicting model, following Max Weber and Karl Marx, views religion and the market in opposition, which results in greater secularisation. The second, following Emile Durkheim, proposes a 'functionalist' model of society, in which the market itself becomes sacred. The third, following Karl Polanyi, claims the two are more dialectical, in that both are affected by the power of the other; they remain in an ambiguous relationship. The author argues that the third model is the most coherent description of this complex relationship as well as the one most consistent with the convictions of Chrstian social thought.