The One True Religion: Marketism
On November 24, Providence will host its annual Provf Talks which are a series of short lectures put on by the faculty of Providence UC modeled after the popular TED talks. One of the lectures, delivered by a member of the Business Faculty is entitled "The Christian Case for Capitalism." This appears as nothing less than a theological exegesis and rationale for the current "strategic moves" Providence has recently made with the launch of their Buller Business School and Impact 2020. If the literature is to believed, this new addition to the academic offerings of Providence UC will amount to nothing less than the securing of the future success of the school as it moves to a position of pre-eminence on the Canadian academic landscape.
But Providence is a Christ-centered institution. Having attended there for the better part of a decade now, it would seem that there is indeed something to the claim that Jesus is central to the life and work of this institution. So why the change in rhetoric? Is it the case that "Christ-centered" was merely good branding all along? After attending the ceremony of civil religion that passed itself off as a ribbon cutting for the new Business school this semester, it was difficult to see what position the Cross had been relegated to behind the national, provincial, and institutional flags and banners that framed the scene.
Harvey Cox has argued that the changes I have noted at my own university are changes that are happening across the world in many institutions of higher education (and beyond). Students have become customers, and the "end" of the university has seen a replacement of knowledge for profit. Indeed, more broadly, the eschatological hope that Christians traditionally professed as the return of Jesus has been replaced by the instant gratification of the commodity marketplace. Cox argues that these changes are the result of the success of the new world religion, Marketism. In his book The Market as God, Cox claims that the Market has deified itself. Using the methodology of process-theology, he sees the Market as unfolding towards the three omnis of classical theology as well as providing the entire symbolic world in which meaning is now made. Economists are the prophets, businessmen are the priests, marketers are the evangelists. If the gnosis of the market is questioned, or challenged, the heretic faces persecution or excommunication.
If Cox's view is correct, then the Christian tradition has a name for the type of apologetic work on offer at the upcoming Provf Talks: idolatry. Markets, like any creaturely reality can be used and exploited to their proper ends in obedience to the law of charity, but when the creature becomes deified, pariticipation, rationalization, and apologetics begin to take on a desperate tone that require a careful look. As the religion of Marketism gains universal pre-eminence through the forces of global capitalism, a "Christian Case for Capitalism" begins to appear as terrifying as it is absurd.
But Providence is a Christ-centered institution. Having attended there for the better part of a decade now, it would seem that there is indeed something to the claim that Jesus is central to the life and work of this institution. So why the change in rhetoric? Is it the case that "Christ-centered" was merely good branding all along? After attending the ceremony of civil religion that passed itself off as a ribbon cutting for the new Business school this semester, it was difficult to see what position the Cross had been relegated to behind the national, provincial, and institutional flags and banners that framed the scene.
Harvey Cox has argued that the changes I have noted at my own university are changes that are happening across the world in many institutions of higher education (and beyond). Students have become customers, and the "end" of the university has seen a replacement of knowledge for profit. Indeed, more broadly, the eschatological hope that Christians traditionally professed as the return of Jesus has been replaced by the instant gratification of the commodity marketplace. Cox argues that these changes are the result of the success of the new world religion, Marketism. In his book The Market as God, Cox claims that the Market has deified itself. Using the methodology of process-theology, he sees the Market as unfolding towards the three omnis of classical theology as well as providing the entire symbolic world in which meaning is now made. Economists are the prophets, businessmen are the priests, marketers are the evangelists. If the gnosis of the market is questioned, or challenged, the heretic faces persecution or excommunication.
If Cox's view is correct, then the Christian tradition has a name for the type of apologetic work on offer at the upcoming Provf Talks: idolatry. Markets, like any creaturely reality can be used and exploited to their proper ends in obedience to the law of charity, but when the creature becomes deified, pariticipation, rationalization, and apologetics begin to take on a desperate tone that require a careful look. As the religion of Marketism gains universal pre-eminence through the forces of global capitalism, a "Christian Case for Capitalism" begins to appear as terrifying as it is absurd.
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