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{"id":20389,"date":"2011-09-17T10:46:59","date_gmt":"2011-09-17T15:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/?p=20389"},"modified":"2011-09-13T16:49:10","modified_gmt":"2011-09-13T21:49:10","slug":"saturday-book-review-tomas-sedlacek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/09\/17\/saturday-book-review-tomas-sedlacek\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Book Review: Tomas Sedlacek"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Tomas Sedlacek, Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street<\/em> (Oxford University Press, 2011), 352 pp.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>Reviewed by Wesley Vander Lugt<\/a><\/p>\n

I am no economist, but as student of theological ethics, I know a thing or two about good and evil, which is why I was interested to see how Tomas Sedlacek would tell this story. And I also know Tomas, or at least had the privilege of spending a week with him last summer, and find his voracious appetite for ideas and vigor for living infectious, which I had no doubt would leave its mark on this book. Plus, as the Chief Macro-Economist of the largest Czech bank, the former advisor of former Czech president V\u00e1clav Havel, and one of the \u201cfive hot minds in economics\u201d according to the Yale Economic Review, I knew this would be an important book to digest.<\/p>\n

As a warning to enthusiastic readers, however, make sure you leave plenty of time for digestion, because this is a dense book. There is more philosophy and theology in this book than economics, which illustrates Sedlacek\u2019s overall thesis that what economics needs most is more meta-economics. We live in the Debt Age, drugged on consumption and obsessed with progress, and part of the problem is that we have ignored the stories that undergird current economic theory and practice. As an attempt to provide a corrective to the current malaise, therefore, Sedlacek interacts with major stories and ideas from Western culture and relates them to economics, including the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Old Testament, ancient Greek philosophy, Christianity, Enlightenment rationalism, and the thought of significant figures such as Bernard Mandeville and Adam Smith.<\/p>\n

The breadth of material Sedlacek deals with is jaw-dropping, but it is not always cleanly organized or well-written, which makes for a fascinating yet frequently dizzying read. In addition, while there are some fascinating observations about how the Old and New Testaments contain and impacted economic thinking, some of these observations are based on simplistic proof-texting without considering the literary genre or historical context of a text. For example, Sedlacek observes that in a passage like Deut. 7:12-16, economic cycles are given moral explanations (66), but this is not situated within the larger context of the redemptive and missional drama of Deuteronomy and the rest of the Pentateuch. An excellent example of a more contextually sensitive, exegetically careful approach is Christopher Wright\u2019s treatment of economics in Old Testament Ethics for the People of God<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When addressing thinkers closer to his own field of economics, however, Sedlacek is more accurate, and corrects a popular myth that Adam Smith thought self-interest is the ultimate motivation for economic activity. In reality, Smith had a much more nuanced view, believing that many motives\u2014including sympathy and loving benevolence\u2014combine to create our economic climate. If anyone espoused a view of pure economic egoism, it was Bernard Mandeville, who argued that vices are indeed virtues. But this approach has only contributed to the debt crisis and increased our addiction to consumption. What is the way forward?<\/p>\n

For Sedlacek, the way forward it \u201cSabbath economics,\u201d which means economists and consumers alike need to follow the rule: \u201cdo not always optimize\u201d (245). In other words, \u201cwe should change the way we drive from MaxSpeed to MinDebt, and slow down to Economy drive<\/em>\u201d (248). Adopting this kind of economic practice and policy, however, means adopting a new economic model that takes seriously issues of meta-economics. We need to scrap models prioritizing progress at all costs, constant consumption, and feverish optimization, and adopt a model that puts us in \u201ceconomic retro,\u201d pursuing pleasure with moderation during the good times while truly putting aside reserves for the bad times, instead of spiraling into deeper debt.<\/p>\n

In other words, what Sedlacek is advocating, even though he doesn\u2019t use this phrase, is slow economics<\/em>. Just as the slow food movement critiques fast food, industrialized agriculture, and alienation from the time-consuming and pleasurable processes of food production and consumption, Economics of Good and Evil<\/em> critiques fast economics and advocates a more measured, thoughtful, conscientious, and pleasurable economy. Wendell Berry would be proud, and Christians should give a hearty \u201camen.\u201d In supporting this perspective, however, Sedlacek is content to borrow from any story or system of ideas, whether Hebraic or Hobbesian, Cartesian or Christian. Since, according to Sedlacek, all stories are fictional, we should not be concerned whether or not they correspond with reality, as long as we recognize the unavoidable role of faith and seek after a beautifully coherent worldview. Whereas this might be a big step forward for secular economists, this is unsatisfying for me as a Christian who believes that the truth of Christianity coheres and<\/em> corresponds with reality. What if slow economics is not just a beautiful idea, but corresponds with how God created the world and how he is in the process of re-creating it? Maybe Sedlacek agrees, but that would take quite another book, and one even more daring.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"