Rational Religion: Economic Patterns in Old Testament Thought

By tracing institutional and constitutional economic patterns to Old Testament thought, the thesis of a rational economic dimension of the biblical text can be advanced and the actual nature and substance of religion can be conceptualised in economic terms. Here the paper questions the widespread assumption that religion will be radically different from modern ethics (“economics as ethics”) in the tradition of the Scottish Enlightenment. In this regard the paper specifically addresses the call for a concept of “rational religion” as early on identified by Smith but contests the explicit claims of Smith or modern institutional economists like Buchanan that a concept of rational religion or “economics as ethics” necessarily is separated from the Bible. An institutional economic theory of Old Testament-based religion is proposed through a set of four theses. On the basis of these arguments, the paper outlines why Old Testament-based religion still has and could have a persistent and pervasive influence in contemporary, capitalist society.     

Reasonable hope: Kant as critical theorist

Sister and brother Anna Letitia Barbauld (née Aikin; 1743–1825) and John Aikin (1747–1822) are two famous Rational Dissenting writers who strategically appropriated republican discourse to advance the Dissenting cause. Both make the case that, far from being subversive, Rational Dissent actually granted its adherents the independence that, from a republican perspective, was considered essential to true patriotism. In a fresh formulation of republican discourse, they present the strength of the Rational Dissenting commitment to ‘free inquiry’ as security for continuing independence, enabling liberal Dissenters to act as patriotic guardians of British virtue and liberty against the dangerous effects of luxury, even as they continued to contribute towards the development of the British commercial economy and to promote the benefits of commerce, traditionally regarded with hostility by classical republicans. Effectively exploiting the classical republican belief in the central role of education, Barbauld and Aikin particularly sought to publicize the role that the Dissenting academies had played in producing patriots by making ‘free inquiry’ the basis of their pedagogical philosophy and practice.     

Book reviews

Ruth Oldenziel, Making Technology Masculine: Men, Women, and Modern Machines in America, 1870–1945 (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1999), pp. 271

Lars Engwall and Vera Zamagni (eds.), Management Education in Historical Perspective (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1999), pp. Xiii+177

T.R. Gourvish and N. Tiratsoo (eds.), Missionaries and Managers: American Influences on European Management Education, 1945–1960 (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press/St. Martins, 1999), pp. X+165     

论中华文化的枢纽蜕变：由商朝的鬼神信仰到周朝的人文精神

从人类四大文明的角度来检视,不难发现中华文化最早由鬼神信仰发展出人文精神,这个枢纽蜕变来自夷夏两大部族文化的长期冲突与融合。夷夏两种文化自新石器时期即可看出不同的发展倾向,并常通过激烈的军事冲突确立彼此共主与宾服的关系。商朝的族裔源头与文化传承都承接于东夷部族,鬼神信仰对东夷人生活具有主导性的意义,其最崇敬的至高神就是上帝。商朝统治阶层深信自身天命来自上帝的授权,而周王朝通过不懈的奋斗灭亡商朝的事实裂解了长年被普遍认同的“血统天命观”,开启了特有的“德性天命观”。周建国初期,统治阶层对于天命的确保就具有强烈的忧患意识,这使得从商朝的亡国到周朝的立国,不止是王朝的更迭交替,更反映出中华文化的枢纽蜕变。周文化是中国人文精神的源头,其表现就在人们尽管依然有天命的信仰,却不再迷信鬼神,更相信人自身的奋勉与否,才是任何事情成败的关键因素,中华文化的理性化历程由此展开。