If money troubles your soul, try this down-to-earth Quaker perspective on economies large and small.
If money troubles your soul, try this down-to-earth Quaker perspective on economies large and small.
Microeconomics, Quaker, Sociology of religion
If money troubles your soul, try this down-to-earth Quaker perspective on economies large and small.
The economy, as we usually encounter it, has nothing to do with values or faith. After all, the “invisible hand” caters to no religious belief. It is all a matter of science, we are assured: economists have mastered the mathematical formulas for growth and prosperity. Our role as individuals is simply to work, consume and save, each adding our bit to the sum totals of economic activity that will keep the system humming along; the experts will take care of everything else.
This breezy values-free story, however, is unlikely to be a comfortable fit for anyone who takes seriously the challenge of bringing our faith into the world. Knotty issues around economics crop up at every turn, especially if we are willing to ask the big questions: What is the economy for? How much is enough? What needs to be equal? How is well-being best measured? Who should decide?
In Money and Soul this search for answers, through a Quaker lens, gives a taste of the power of applying faith values to our economic story.
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Pamela Haines has a long seasoned and extraordinary grasp of Quakerism’s ethic of right relationship. In Money and Soul she has used this perspective to expose the social and ecological destructiveness of the money-driven economy, and to offer a manual of ways in which we can build lives and relationships that support the mutual flourishing of human communities and Earth’s whole commonwealth of life. ~ Keith Helmuth, founding Board Member of Quaker Institute for the Future and author of Tracking Down Ecological Guidance
In a book that reads like a relaxed fireside conversation with a thoughtful friend, truths about economic structures are unmasked, and readers are challenged to listen for "what rings true". ~ George Lakey, author, of Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians got it right and how we can, too
Pamela Haines writes with an inviting combination of humility and authority, helping us to explore how Money and Soul converge in our own lives. The questions she raises are important for any thoughtful person or faith-based group, Quaker or otherwise, to consider. ~ Eileen Flanagan, author of The Wisdom to Know the Difference
A thoughtful, personal exploration of the simple joys and challenges of living a good and ethical life in an ethically challenged world that puts I before we and drives toward environmental collapse. ~ David Korten, co-founder of YES! Magazine and author of When Corporations Rule the World
