A prominent scholar reveals the surprising ways that capitalism is actually the best way to follow Jesus’s mandates to alleviate poverty and protect our earth. Christianity generally sees capitalism as either bad because it causes much of the world’s suffering, or good because God wants you to prosper and be rich. But there is a large, growing audience of evangelical and mainline Christians who are deeply uneasy about how to follow Jesus’s mandate to care for the poor and the environment while living with the excesses of capitalism.
Now, a noted Christian scholar argues that there is a middle view that reveals Christianity cannot only accommodate capitalism, but Christian theology can help explain why capitalism works. By highlighting the most common myths committed by Christians when thinking about economics, such as “capitalism is based on greed and over consumption” or “if someone becomes rich that automatically means someone else will become poor,” Money, Guilt, and God equips readers to take practical steps in their own lives to conduct business, worship God, and serve others without falling into the “prosperity gospel” trap.

Money, Greed, and God 10th Anniversary Edition

Richards, Jay

Science & Math

HarperOne

A book geared towards conservative Christians with mass appeal connects biblical principles with practical politics, looking at such cultural topics as government spending, marriage and education. Reprint.

Indivisible: Restoring Faith, Family and Freedom Before It's Too Late

Religion & Spirituality

Robeson, James

Christian Books & Bibles

Ignatius Press

Anyone who has read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings can gather that their author hated tyranny, but few know that the novelist who once described himself as a hobbit “in all but size” was―even by hobbit standards―a zealous proponent of economic freedom and small government. There is a growing concern among many that the West is sliding into political, economic, and moral bankruptcy. In his beloved novels of Middle-Earth, J.R.R. Tolkien has drawn us a map to freedom.
Scholar Joseph Pearce, who himself has written articles and chapters on the political significance of Tolkien’s work, testified in his book Literary Giants, Literary Catholics, “If much has been written on the religious significance of The Lord of the Rings, less has been written on its political significance―and the little that has been written is often erroneous in its conclusions and ignorant of Tolkien’s intentions…. Much more work is needed in this area, not least because Tolkien stated, implicitly at least, that the political significance of the work was second only to the religious in its importance.”
Several books ably explore how Tolkien’s Catholic faith informed his fiction. None until now have centered on how his passion for liberty and limited government also shaped his work, or how this passion grew directly from his theological vision of man and creation. The Hobbit Party fills this void.
The few existing pieces that do focus on the subject are mostly written by scholars with little or no formal training in literary analysis, and even less training in political economy. Witt and Richards bring to The Hobbit Party a combined expertise in literary studies, political theory, economics, philosophy, and theology.

The Hobbit Party: The Vision of Freedom That Tolkien Got, and the West Forgot

Literature & Fiction

Witt, Jonathan

History & Criticism

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Books by Richards, Jay