Credo Credit Crisis: Speculations on Faith and Money (Critical Perspectives on Theory, Culture and Politics)

Money facilitates the rites and rituals we perform in everyday life. More than a mere medium of exchange or a measure of value, it is the primary means by which we manifest a faith unique to our secular age. But what happens when individual belief (credo, ‘I’ believe) and the systems into which it is bound (credit, ‘it’ believes) enter into crisis? Where did the sacredness of money come from, and does it have a future? Why do we talk about debt and repayment in overtly moral terms? How should a theological critique of capitalism proceed today? With the effects of the 2008 economic crises continuing to be felt across the world, this volume brings together some of the most important contemporary voices in philosophy, literature, theology, and critical and cultural theory together in one volume to assert the need to interrogate and broaden the terms of the theological critique of capitalism. Credo Credit Crisis Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: Speculative exchange: Between religion and economics Section one: Modernity and the trajectories of sovereignty 1 The ascendancy of finance: Toward a concept of Seignioral power 2 Hobbes, sovereign power and money 3 ‘Accelerator despite Itself’: Credo, crisis, Katechon Section two: The living soul of money 4 The Bank of England in ruins: Photography, money and the law of equivalence 5 Seeing is believing: Looking at the gold standard 6 Universal Shylockery: Money and morality in The Merchant of Venice 7 ‘We are all prostitutes’: Crisis and libidinal economy 8 The materiality of belief: On the real death of Mammon Section three: Speculation and critique 9 Impotent signs: Money, speculative subjectivity and the ontological proof 10 Speculation upon speculation; or, a contribution to the critique of philosophical economy 11 Believing in deconstruction Section four: Future revelations 12 Credit and investment: A matter of faith 13 How do we know we have a future? Index Notes on contributors Brings Together Both Established And Emerging Scholars From Critical And Cultural Theory, Literature, Philosophy, And Theology To Address The Intersection Of Economics And Religion. It Offers A Series Of Speculative Engagements With The Idea That Faith Considered In The Broadest Sense As The Systems Of Belief Giving Meaning And Consistency To Experience Is Inextricably Enmeshed With Economic Systems. Bringing together both established and emerging scholars from critical and cultural theory, literature, philosophy, and theology, this book examines the intersection of economics and religion.