The Market as God - Living in the New Dispensation

I was looking through some notes from a class I took last summer and came upon an article which relates to some other reading I've been doing lately. Wanted to post a journal I wrote on it. The original article comes from The Atlantic Monthly, March 1999, pp. 18, 20-24.

Harvey Cox, Professor of Divinity at Harvard University, wrote an article a number of years back about how the market economy has become the new post-modern diety, the Market God. He compares his studies of theology to the lexicon of the leading business journals which he says “bear a striking resemblance to Genesis, the Epistle to the Romans, and Saint Augustine’s City of God.”

He found the resemblance interesting and comprehensive to the extent that “there were even sacraments to convey salvitic power to the lost, a calendar of entrepreneurial saints, and what theologians call an ‘eschatology’ – a teaching about the ‘end of history.’” He notes that the qualities of the divinity are found in the Market God, but are also “hidden from human eyes both by human sin and by the transcendence of the divine itself.” The ability to trust in the divine attributes are as much a matter of faith in the Market as they are in a divine God.

What Cox calls the “econologians’ rhetoric” is also sometimes called “process theology,” the philosophy that God does not yet possess all his divine attributes to the full but is moving in that direction. Cox looks at the classic attributes we call omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence and describes how he sees the new Market God as gradually rising above the demigods, or various institutions which once restrained it, to become like the Yahweh of the Old Testament, the one Supreme Diety “whose reign must now be universally accepted and who allows for no rivals.”

Cox's first point is that that “divine omnipotence means the capacity to define what is real.” He says the Market performs a process he describes as a reverse transubstantiation, changing things that are holy into commodities. And though there has been “some opposition from the pews,” Cox gives examples where even human body parts and genes have become commodities. And what about the value of human life itself? He points out how children born with severe handicaps, usually seen as unproductive in society, help feed the Market’s medical fields. This certainly puts a different spin on the human capital theory, in my opinion!

As far as omniscience, Cox compares it to Calvin’s views: “the Market may work in mysterious ways, ‘hid from our eyes,’ but ultimately it knows best.” But he exposes its means of “probing our inmost fears and desires and then dispensing across-the-board solutions” by which it can “further extend its reach.” He states that psychology has replaced theology as the true “science of the soul.” Again, “the metaphysical principle is obvious: If you say it’s the real thing, then it must be the real thing.”

His last point is that the omnipresence of the Market means it is “not only around us but inside us, informing our senses and our feelings.” This new god even has the market on our needs spiritually. “The Market makes available the religious benefits that once required prayer and fasting, without the awkwardness of denominational commitment or the tedious ascetic discipline that once limited their accessibility.” Cox even theorizes, back in 1999, that the clash of religions may be going on unnoticed because the religion of “The Market has become the most formidable rival . . .” He asks, “Will this lead to a new jihad or crusade?” What insight! And what perspective it reinforces in my mind about the war in the Middle East. The US says it’s politics and security; some say it’s a Muslim-Christian conflict; but when it comes right down to it, the oil, land, political power added to the economic boom a war can initiate are all commodities in a market economy.

Cox admits that trusting any religion takes faith, no matter what religion one refers to, but he predicts that the new Market religion will continue a process of possession. He points out that the Market prefers individualism and mobility, having little patience for people who “cling to local traditions.” It will eventually incorporate other or pre-existing religions into its ways, convincing people that we are now in a new dispensation. He concludes by pointing out that unlike many religions which teach the concept of contentment and enough, the Market’s “First Commandment is ‘there is never enough.’” “The Market that stops expanding dies.” I am both amused and saddened by Cox’s final concession that if the Market would ever die, then “Nietzsche will have been right after all . . . he will just have had the wrong God in mind.”