For God and Profit: How Banking and Finance Can Serve the Common Good

by Samuel Gregg

From Christianity’s very beginning, it has had a difficult relationship with the world of money. Through developing sophisticated understandings of the nature and wealth-creating capacity of capital, Christian theologians, philosophers, and financiers exerted considerable influence upon the emergence and development of the international financial systems that helped unleash a revolution in the way the world thinks about and uses capital. In For God and Profit , Samuel Gregg underscores the different ways in which Christians have helped to develop the financial and banking systems that have helped millions escape poverty for hundreds of years. But he also provides a critical lens through which to assess the workings—and failures—of modern finance and banking. Far from being doomed to producing economic instability and periodic financial crises, Gregg illustrates that how Christian faith and reason can shape financial practices and banking institutions in ways that restore integrity to our troubled financial systems. 

Genres: Economics, Religion

300 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2016

About the author

Dr. Samuel Gregg has a D.Phil. in moral philosophy and political economy from Oxford University, and an M.A. in political philosophy from the University of Melbourne.

He has written and spoken extensively on questions of political economy, economic history, monetary theory and policy, and natural law theory.

In 2001, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a Member of the Mont Pèlerin Society in 2004. In 2008, he was elected a member of the Philadelphia Society, and a member of the Royal Economic Society. In 2017, he was made a Fellow of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. He served as President of the Philadelphia Society from 2019-2021.

Reviews

[Jeff G · Rating 4 out of 5]

not an easy read, but worthwhile. Gregg explores primarily Catholic thought and teaching on topics such as usury, money, capital and finance as vocation.

[Colin Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Felt like essays rather than one argument. Presupposes an understanding, albeit limited of economics and finance.