{"id":698,"date":"2014-05-07T09:05:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T09:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/05\/not-just-profit-how-religion-and-morality-helped-colonial-america-become-capitalist.html"},"modified":"2014-05-07T09:05:00","modified_gmt":"2014-05-07T09:05:00","slug":"not-just-profit-how-religion-and-morality-helped-colonial-america-become-capitalist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/05\/not-just-profit-how-religion-and-morality-helped-colonial-america-become-capitalist.html","title":{"rendered":"Not Just Profit: How Religion And Morality Helped Colonial America Become Capitalist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Mark Valeri knows more about the economic thinking of the century before the founders than anyone alive. Instead of spending time reading books by other historians, he spent a decade on-and-off reading his way through the diaries, sermons, sermon notes, and ledger books of the New England Puritans who were gradually transformed into the New England Yankees, heroes of commercial enterprise.<\/span><\/span>

<\/span><\/span>What he found upset two prevailing myths of history. One is that Calvin and Calvinists were, from the beginning, great friends of laissez faire capitalism. They were not. The other myth is that religion was beside the point; rising \u2018modernity\u2019 (whatever that is) simply overwhelmed religion, which in time surrendered. That also is false. Puritan Christianity did not capitulate to modernity, but helped to create it. Valeri\u2019s book,\u00a0<\/span>Heavenly Merchandize<\/i><\/a>, has probably changed my mind more than any book I\u2019ve read this year. It fills in the gaps in Ned Phelp\u2019s excellent\u00a0<\/span>Mass Flourishing<\/i><\/a>\u00a0and is a nice companion to Dierdre McCloskey\u2019s more European-focused\u00a0<\/span>Bourgeois Dignity<\/i>. Valeri\u2019s book is a genuine contribution to the history of economic thought.<\/span><\/span>

<\/span><\/span>I sat down across a Skype connection with professor Valeri recently for a wide-ranging and deep discussion, not just on the topic of colonial economic thought, but on Christianity and economics in general. Selected transcripts of the interview will be published, starting this week. You can listen to audio of the whole conversation by\u00a0<\/span>clicking here<\/a>.<\/span><\/span>

<\/span><\/span>Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Valeri knows more about the economic thinking of the century before the founders than anyone alive. Instead of spending time reading books by other historians, he spent a decade on-and-off reading his way through the diaries, sermons, sermon notes, and ledger books of the New England Puritans who were gradually transformed into the New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nNot Just Profit: How Religion And Morality Helped Colonial America Become Capitalist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mark Valeri knows more about the economic thinking of the century before the founders than anyone alive. Instead of spending time reading books by other\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/05\/not-just-profit-how-religion-and-morality-helped-colonial-america-become-capitalist.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Not Just Profit: How Religion And Morality Helped Colonial America Become Capitalist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mark Valeri knows more about the economic thinking of the century before the founders than anyone alive. Instead of spending time reading books by other\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/05\/not-just-profit-how-religion-and-morality-helped-colonial-america-become-capitalist.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-07T09:05:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest Contributor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest Contributor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/05\/not-just-profit-how-religion-and-morality-helped-colonial-america-become-capitalist.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/05\/not-just-profit-how-religion-and-morality-helped-colonial-america-become-capitalist.html\",\"name\":\"Not Just Profit: How Religion And Morality Helped Colonial America Become Capitalist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-07T09:05:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-05-07T09:05:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2\"},\"description\":\"Mark Valeri knows more about the economic thinking of the century before the founders than anyone alive. Instead of spending time reading books by other\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/05\/not-just-profit-how-religion-and-morality-helped-colonial-america-become-capitalist.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/05\/not-just-profit-how-religion-and-morality-helped-colonial-america-become-capitalist.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/05\/not-just-profit-how-religion-and-morality-helped-colonial-america-become-capitalist.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Not Just Profit: How Religion And Morality Helped Colonial America Become Capitalist\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/\",\"name\":\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2\",\"name\":\"Guest Contributor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Guest Contributor\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/author\/admin\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Not Just Profit: How Religion And Morality Helped Colonial America Become Capitalist","description":"Mark Valeri knows more about the economic thinking of the century before the founders than anyone alive. Instead of spending time reading books by other","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/05\/not-just-profit-how-religion-and-morality-helped-colonial-america-become-capitalist.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Not Just Profit: How Religion And Morality Helped Colonial America Become Capitalist","og_description":"Mark Valeri knows more about the economic thinking of the century before the founders than anyone alive. Instead of spending time reading books by other","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/05\/not-just-profit-how-religion-and-morality-helped-colonial-america-become-capitalist.html","og_site_name":"Rhetoric Race and Religion","article_published_time":"2014-05-07T09:05:00+00:00","author":"Guest Contributor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Guest Contributor","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/05\/not-just-profit-how-religion-and-morality-helped-colonial-america-become-capitalist.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/05\/not-just-profit-how-religion-and-morality-helped-colonial-america-become-capitalist.html","name":"Not Just Profit: How Religion And Morality Helped Colonial America Become Capitalist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-05-07T09:05:00+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-07T09:05:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2"},"description":"Mark Valeri knows more about the economic thinking of the century before the founders than anyone alive. Instead of spending time reading books by other","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/05\/not-just-profit-how-religion-and-morality-helped-colonial-america-become-capitalist.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/05\/not-just-profit-how-religion-and-morality-helped-colonial-america-become-capitalist.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2014\/05\/not-just-profit-how-religion-and-morality-helped-colonial-america-become-capitalist.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Not Just Profit: How Religion And Morality Helped Colonial America Become Capitalist"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/","name":"Rhetoric Race and Religion","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/2869b699bf0e57982cb1f212243705f2","name":"Guest Contributor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5010a3cc274cdb37811bf24de46dc280?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Guest Contributor"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/author\/admin"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}