Theological Ethics in a Neoliberal Age: Confronting the Christian Problem With Wealth

Abstract

By historical and global standards, most western Christians—even public school teachers such as myself—are wealthy. This places us in a tricky situation when we open our Bibles and read numerous warnings against the dangers of wealth, many of which come directly from Christ himself. It is this predicament which Kevin Hargaden seeks to address. Hargaden examines the titular problem with wealth through a macro-level exploration of neoliberalism’s totalizing claims on the present age and an analysis of how neoliberal principles operated in the rise and fall of his native Ireland’s “Celtic Tiger” economy, while seeking to understand how Christians ought to live in neoliberal times. This is an ambitious undertaking, and the result, while frequently insightful and engaging, is a mixed success.