At the Altar of Wall Street

Catholic Books Review "An excellent review and critique of our current economic system's sacred and unquestionable beliefs and activities. . . . Provocative." Ethical Perspectives "A stimulating and well-written meditation about how economics functions in our current global culture." Harvey Cox (author of The Secular City) -- Harvard Divinity School "It is daily becoming more clear that consumer capitalism is not just an economic system. It is a fully developed culture and, as Gustafson shows in this skillfully researched book, a full-blown religion. Replete with its own rituals, doctrines, sacraments, and theology, Economics has become the most powerful alternative to Christianity, all the more threatening because few people recognize its spiritual pretensions. No one who reads this extraordinary account will be able to think about religion or economics in the same way again." Robert H. Nelson (author of Economics as Religion) -- Independent Institute "In this intriguing book Scott Gustafson applies a new theological lens to American public life. Religion has always addressed political and economic affairs, but now, as he explains, economics actually is our religion. Gustafson shows that much conventional wisdom about the workings of American society is based on `secular' economic myth and illusion, and he insightfully explores how religion today has put on an economic disguise." Christian Century "Gustafson incisively lays bare our faith that capitalism will simultaneously make us rich and save us from the moral and material excesses of those riches."