Critiques of Religion + Capitalism

Catalog description

This interdisciplinary and comparative seminar analyzes the economic aspects of religion and the religious aspects of capitalism. It takes up these questions in relation to historical and contemporary archives, and it prioritizes feminist, critical race, and queer analysis. Readings and course themes press boundaries of how we might think about religion and reveal new directions for an analysis and critique of capitalism. We will ask questions like the following: How can we trace the growth of the idea that participation in global free markets can facilitate relations of justice? What moral frameworks and theories of human life underwrite the vision of capital markets as a theater for political-ethical action? Under what circumstances can capitalist philosophies and practices be understood in terms of religion?