Mammon's Kingdom

Mammon's Kingdom PDF Author: David Marquand
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0718195620
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
'One of Britain's leading political thinkers' John Gray The follies and failures of bankers, regulators and governments have loomed large in public debate over the past five years. In this passionate and hard-hitting book, David Marquand digs deeper. At the heart of our predicament, he argues, lies a profound crisis of our moral economy, our public culture and our democracy. The empire of money has grown remorselessly for three decades, narrowing the space for a common life without which democratic institutions are empty shells. Increasingly, worth is equated with wealth and greed is thought to be good. Inequality has soared as a narrow elite of the super-rich has raced away from the rest of us. Humiliation at the bottom of the pile is matched by callous indifference at the top. The better angels of our nature survive, but they have taken a heavy hit. We are sleepwalking towards a seedy barbarism. The long struggle to master markets and curb property rights in the public interest - a struggle waged by leaders of all the main political families of our history, whether conservative, liberal and socialist or social-democratic - has gone into reverse. The language of the public interest is rarely heard; the notion that the common good should take precedence over individual appetites has virtually disappeared from political discussion. Public trust, essential for properly functioning markets as well as for democratic rule, has plummeted. The fetish of 'free choice' has mutated into an unsought communal fate. Marquand's message is plain: we cannot go on as we are. He sets out the framework of a new public philosophy, based on the values of stewardship, democratic dialogue, civic engagement and freedom from humiliation, to spring the trap into which we have stumbled. DAVID MARQUAND is one of the leading left of centre political philosophers in the UK. He is a former Labour Member of Parliament and Chief Advisor in the Secretariat General of the European Commission, and from 1996 to 2002 was Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford. His many books include Ramsay MacDonald, The Unprincipled Society: New Demands and Old Politics, The Progressive Dilemma: From Lloyd George to Blair, Decline of the Public: The Hollowing-out of Citizenship, Britain Since 1918: The Strange Career of British Democracy and The End of the West: The Once and Future Europe. He is a Fellow of both the British Academy and the Learned Society of Wales. In 2001 he received the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize for a lifetime contribution to Political Studies. PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS 'David Marquand is a unique, perhaps irreplaceable, figure in British life. He has in his time played many parts: leader writer, Labour MP, Eurocrat, Oxford don. But his starring role has been as public intellectual, a civilising rhetorician of a type more common in France or the US ... Our outstanding centre-left theorist' Kenneth O. Morgan, Independent 'An engaging and stylish political thinker, who moves adventurously across academic frontiers and straddles the worlds of scholarship and politics' Prospect 'An extremely pithy and witty writer' Dominic Sandbrook, Telegraph

Mammon's Kingdom

Mammon's Kingdom PDF Author: David Marquand
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0718195620
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
'One of Britain's leading political thinkers' John Gray The follies and failures of bankers, regulators and governments have loomed large in public debate over the past five years. In this passionate and hard-hitting book, David Marquand digs deeper. At the heart of our predicament, he argues, lies a profound crisis of our moral economy, our public culture and our democracy. The empire of money has grown remorselessly for three decades, narrowing the space for a common life without which democratic institutions are empty shells. Increasingly, worth is equated with wealth and greed is thought to be good. Inequality has soared as a narrow elite of the super-rich has raced away from the rest of us. Humiliation at the bottom of the pile is matched by callous indifference at the top. The better angels of our nature survive, but they have taken a heavy hit. We are sleepwalking towards a seedy barbarism. The long struggle to master markets and curb property rights in the public interest - a struggle waged by leaders of all the main political families of our history, whether conservative, liberal and socialist or social-democratic - has gone into reverse. The language of the public interest is rarely heard; the notion that the common good should take precedence over individual appetites has virtually disappeared from political discussion. Public trust, essential for properly functioning markets as well as for democratic rule, has plummeted. The fetish of 'free choice' has mutated into an unsought communal fate. Marquand's message is plain: we cannot go on as we are. He sets out the framework of a new public philosophy, based on the values of stewardship, democratic dialogue, civic engagement and freedom from humiliation, to spring the trap into which we have stumbled. DAVID MARQUAND is one of the leading left of centre political philosophers in the UK. He is a former Labour Member of Parliament and Chief Advisor in the Secretariat General of the European Commission, and from 1996 to 2002 was Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford. His many books include Ramsay MacDonald, The Unprincipled Society: New Demands and Old Politics, The Progressive Dilemma: From Lloyd George to Blair, Decline of the Public: The Hollowing-out of Citizenship, Britain Since 1918: The Strange Career of British Democracy and The End of the West: The Once and Future Europe. He is a Fellow of both the British Academy and the Learned Society of Wales. In 2001 he received the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize for a lifetime contribution to Political Studies. PRAISE FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS 'David Marquand is a unique, perhaps irreplaceable, figure in British life. He has in his time played many parts: leader writer, Labour MP, Eurocrat, Oxford don. But his starring role has been as public intellectual, a civilising rhetorician of a type more common in France or the US ... Our outstanding centre-left theorist' Kenneth O. Morgan, Independent 'An engaging and stylish political thinker, who moves adventurously across academic frontiers and straddles the worlds of scholarship and politics' Prospect 'An extremely pithy and witty writer' Dominic Sandbrook, Telegraph

The Enchantments of Mammon

The Enchantments of Mammon PDF Author: Eugene McCarraher
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674242777
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 817

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Book Description
“An extraordinary work of intellectual history as well as a scholarly tour de force, a bracing polemic, and a work of Christian prophecy...McCarraher challenges more than 200 years of post-Enlightenment assumptions about the way we live and work.” —The Observer At least since Max Weber, capitalism has been understood as part of the “disenchantment” of the world, stripping material objects and social relations of their mystery and magic. In this magisterial work, Eugene McCarraher challenges this conventional view. Capitalism, he argues, is full of sacrament, whether one is prepared to acknowledge it or not. First flowering in the fields and factories of England and brought to America by Puritans and evangelicals, whose doctrine made ample room for industry and profit, capitalism has become so thoroughly enmeshed in the fabric of our society that our faith in “the market” has become sacrosanct. Informed by cultural history and theology as well as management theory, The Enchantments of Mammon looks to nineteenth-century Romantics, whose vision of labor combined reason, creativity, and mutual aid, for salvation. In this impassioned challenge to some of our most firmly held assumptions, McCarraher argues that capitalism has hijacked our intrinsic longing for divinity—and urges us to break its hold on our souls. “A majestic achievement...It is a work of great moral and spiritual intelligence, and one that invites contemplation about things we can’t afford not to care about deeply.” —Commonweal “More brilliant, more capacious, and more entertaining, page by page, than his most ardent fans dared hope. The magnitude of his accomplishment—an account of American capitalism as a religion...will stun even skeptical readers.” —Christian Century

The Book of Mammon

The Book of Mammon PDF Author: Robert Harding Morris
Publisher: Author House
ISBN: 1463473354
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Everyone yearns for “the good life” ... where children are reared in a loving, stimulating environment ... where youth are prepared for their future ... where adults achieve satisfaction through personal relationships and meaningfully rewarding work ... and where seniors find peace in their “golden” years. Typically, it entails economic sufficiency. Yet, when this universal hope becomes reality, many Christians confront a disturbing faith challenge. Jesus taught his followers to postpone earthly satisfactions until the next life. In the present world, their blessings will be found in poverty, hunger, sorrow, and persecution. Woe to those with wealth, full stomachs, laughter, and popularity! Christ practiced and demands self-denial, not self-satisfaction. Entry into Jesus’ severe life-style is difficult and the path is arduous. Multitudes are called but only a select few actually follow the way to eternal life that requires crucifixion of one’s self. This book is a thought-provoking biblical analysis of the gospel’s opposition to wealth. One cannot serve both God and money. The Christian dilemma is that practical faith absolutely requires compromise. Money is necessary for daily life and future needs. How is it possible to follow Christ in this money-driven society? The Book of Mammon searches the Bible for the surprising resolution.

Dethroning Mammon: Making Money Serve Grace

Dethroning Mammon: Making Money Serve Grace PDF Author: Justin Welby
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472929799
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
In his first full-length book Justin Welby looks at the subject of money and materialism. Designed for study in the weeks of Lent leading up to Easter, Dethroning Mammon reflects on the impact of our own attitudes, and of the pressures that surround us, on how we handle the power of money, called Mammon in this book. Who will be on the throne of our lives? Who will direct our actions and attitudes? Is it Jesus Christ, who brings truth, hope and freedom? Or is it Mammon, so attractive, so clear, but leading us into paths that tangle, trip and deceive? Archbishop Justin explores the tensions that arise in a society dominated by Mammon's modern aliases, economics and finance, and by the pressures of our culture to conform to Mammon's expectations. Following the Gospels towards Easter, this book asks the reader what it means to dethrone Mammon in the values and priorities of our civilisation and in our own existence. In Dethroning Mammon, Archbishop Justin challenges us to use Lent as a time of learning to trust in the abundance and grace of God.

Jesus and the Politics of Mammon

Jesus and the Politics of Mammon PDF Author: Hollis Phelps
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1532664478
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 187

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Book Description
In Jesus and the Politics of Mammon, Phelps uses contemporary critical theory, continental philosophy, and theology to develop a radical reading of Jesus. Phelps argues that theological traditions have on the whole blunted Jesus’ teachings, particularly in regard to money and related concerns of political economy. Focusing on the distinction between God and Mammon, Phelps suggests instead that Jesus’ teachings result in a politics that is anti-money, anti-work, and anti-family. Although Jesus does not provide a specific program for this politics, his teachings incite readers to think otherwise with respect to these institutions.

Mammon's Music

Mammon's Music PDF Author: Blair Hoxby
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300129637
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
The commercial revolution of the seventeenth century deeply changed English culture. In this ambitious book, Blair Hoxby explores what that economic transformation meant to the century’s greatest poet, John Milton, and to the broader literary tradition in which he worked. Hoxby places Milton’s work—as well as the writings of contemporary reformers like the Levellers, poets like John Dryden, and political economists like Sir William Petty—within the framework of England’s economic history between 1601 and 1724. Literary history swerved in this period, Hoxby demonstrates, as a burgeoning economic discourse pressed authors to reimagine ideas about self, community, and empire. Hoxby shows that, contrary to commonly held views, Milton was a sophisticated economic thinker. Close readings of Milton’s prose and verse reveal the importance of economic ideas in a wide range of his most famous writings, from Areopagitica to Samson Agonistes to Paradise Lost.

Washington News Letter

Washington News Letter PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Christian Science
Languages : en
Pages : 814

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Book Description


Making social democrats

Making social democrats PDF Author: Hans Schattle
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526120321
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
Amidst ‘Brexit’, a divided and out of power Labour Party, and the wider international rise of populism, contemporary British social democracy appears in a state of crisis. This book, a collection of essays by some of Britain’s leading academics, public intellectuals and political practitioners, seeks to engage with the ‘big picture’ of British social democracy, both historical and contemporary, and point to grounds for greater optimism for its future prospects. It does so in honour of the renowned centre-left thinker David Marquand. Drawing on many of the themes which have preoccupied Marquand in his career and his writing, such as social democratic citizenship, values and participation, the volume offers the original perspective that social democracy is as much about cultures and mindsets as it is about economic policy or public institutions.

Spenser's Ruins and the Art of Recollection

Spenser's Ruins and the Art of Recollection PDF Author: Rebeca Helfer
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 0802090672
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
Beginning with the origins of mnemonic strategies in epic tales, Helfer examines how the art of memory speaks to debates about poetry and its place in culture from Plato to Spenser's present day.

Together for the Common Good

Together for the Common Good PDF Author: Nicholas Sagovsky
Publisher: SCM Press
ISBN: 0334053242
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
How can we work together for the common good today? Thirteen contributors – Christian, Jewish, Muslim, non-religious – discuss the common good from a wide range of viewpoints. How have thinkers like Aristotle and Edmund Burke talked about the common good in the past? Catholic Social Teaching has a lot to say about the common good: what does the common good mean for the world’s great religious traditions today? How can we usefully talk about the common good in a plural society? What responsibility has the state for the common good? Can the market serve the common good? If we care about the common good, what should we think – and do - about immigration, education, the NHS, inequality, and freedom? This book starts from the example of David Sheppard and Derek Worlock, the Anglican Bishop and Roman Catholic Archbishop, who famously worked together for the good of the city of Liverpool in the 1980s. The contributors call for a national conversation about how, despite our differences, we can work together – locally, nationally, internationally – for the common good.