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by Robert H. Nelson Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 2001 408 pp.; $18.95, paper |
In the sequel to his acclaimed 1991 book Reaching for Heaven on Earth: The Theological Meaning of Economics, University of Maryland School of Public Affairs Professor Robert Nelson has written what may be the most important recent book on the future of the economics profession. Mixing intellectual history, theology, and a sophisticated yet readable account of the primary doctrines of 20th-century economics, Nelson's book both illuminates economics' immediate past and draws attention to the problems of its future.
Economics as Religion takes on two tasks. First, Nelson recasts the intellectual history of 20th-century economics in theological terms. Economists, he suggests, constitute nothing less than "the priesthood of a modern secular religion of economic progress that serves many of the same functions in contemporary society as earlier Christian and other religions did in their time." This priesthood offers, in Nelson's account, "another grand prophecy in the biblical tradition. The Jewish and Christian bibles foretell one outcome of history. If economics foresees another, it is in effect offering a competing religious vision. The prophecies of economics would then be a substitute for the traditional messages of the Bible." Second, Nelson uses his master-metaphor to pinpoint the challenges facing economics as a discipline, and economists as individuals, in the 21st century.
Thinking about economics (or other social sciences, political movements, and the like) as a religion can be helpful even where the analogy is only an approximate fit, but Nelson makes a persuasive case that the analogy is a good one. It can also be quite a bit of fun—Nelson's playful aside comparing the technical language and mathematics of current mainstream economic writing to medieval church Latin is both entertaining and enlightening, and there are quite a few more like it sprinkled throughout the book.
To make his case, Nelson relies heavily on two extended analyses of particular sets of economic works. In the first part of the book, he undertakes to decipher the religious subtext of Paul Samuelson's textbook, Economics. More than merely a text for undergraduates, Nelson argues, Samuelson's Economics was designed "to provide an inspirational vision of human progress guided by science in order to motivate Americans and other people to the necessary religious dedication to the cause of progress." This secular gospel glorified efficiency as the ultimate value, not to allow increased consumption but because efficiency offers "the best measure of the rate of movement along the path of economic progress."
Nelson carefully documents how Samuelson glossed over complications and problems with his grand narrative, relegating some to appendices and leaving others out entirely. Samuelson told and retold an economic story that, although presented as scientific fact modeled on physics, was in fact driven almost entirely by quasi-religious assumptions. (Indeed, one of my few criticisms of Nelson is that he does not devote nearly enough space to describing Samuelson's repeated failures to get critical facts right—for example, in continuing to report Soviet economic "success" as superior to free markets long after serious questions were being raised about Soviet economic statistics. Having been taught Econ 101 with Samuelson's book, I must admit I have a longstanding grudge against it.)
Despite the flaws of Samuelson's text, Nelson concludes, Economics was a "major artistic and inspirational success." His point is that the book merits attention as a work which—for better or worse—had a powerful effect. That it did so depended, of course, on the fact that it was an assigned text for millions of readers, not that it was freely chosen reading matter.
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