CFP: Economics and Religion: Theological roots and religious significance of the economic thought from Modern Times till our days

The economic philosophy and the history of economic thought incite us to go back up the course of time and to go back over the positivist claim of an autonomous economics. In this movement of return towards the origin of the discipline two moments are to be distinguished. At first, the social embeddednes of the economy according to which coordinations of decisions are connected with social conventions and norms. Then, the ethical embeddedness of the economy according to which the individuals do not pursue their interests without being at the same time forced by the imperative of justice. At these two moments - who today express themselves under the shape of the institutionnalist theories and the theories of social justice - it seems legitimate and urgent to add a third moment. Isn't it necessary to speak of a religious embeddedness of the economy?

Two questions arise immediately at this point, as so many possible objections. At first, which significance does this backward movement bear? Is it about a deconstruction in the spirit of Heidegger's and his successors' philosophy or is it to remove a repression in the sense used by Marx or isn't it on the contrary a movement of regression which offends Auguste Comte and the progress of the sciences? Then, secondly, among all the past and present religions what religion is it about? And which notion of religion is it necessary to mobilize that can fit to the modern economic agent's interest and desire of wealth?

These questions have undoubtedly their relevance. But, however, it is no reason for putting seriously obstacle to the economic philosophy questioning nor to the curiosity of the historian and to the quest for a widened notion of economy to better address the contemporary challenges. In the previous moments it was necessary to specify in the same way the meaning of the interrogation and to define the notions of civil society, norms, institutions, ethics or justice. Here, the questions arise in the following way: did and are the economic activity, thought and language still permeated with rites, myths, sacrifices, prayers? Were they and are they permeated with an accepted or repressed presence of the Divine, immanent or transcendent? We cannot see what would forbid the philosopher, the historian and all those who want to enlighten the present by the lessons of the past to take these questions seriously.

However, it is obviously necessary to limit the field of this inquiry. It is what the coming international onference at Sciences Po Lille the 15 and 16 January 2015 proposes to do.

The call for papers suggests three directions of work - themselves situated within the framework of a period of time going from early Modern times to our days and confined to the West.

At first, studies relative to authors and doctrines: which sources and which theological tracks can we find in the economic thought of Boisguillebert, of Smith, of Marx, Keynes and others - here simply quoted as examples? What religious impact could have had the development of economic thought on institutions and the religious life in modern societies?

Then, analyses relative to themes where economic notions seem to extend beyond the social and ethical embeddedness of the economy towards theology or the religious inscription of the economy. Here, we especially think of what has been said about the spiritual value of labour, about the idolatrous character of money, about the religious anxiety of the entrepreneur, about the prohibition of the interest rate, the sacred scream of the poor or about the apocalyptic echo of the ecological disasters.

Finally, a reflection on the epistemology, the rhetoric or the shape of spirit to shelter these relations where the poetics of the Divine and the analogies of the witness, the priest or the prophet distinguish themselves from the sober language of economics, the austere rationality of the agent and the severe logic of the economist. In the previous moments of institutionnalism and the theory of justice already, the analysis went away from causalities between quantities and released itself partially from mathematics. With this new moment of the religious embeddedness of the economy, the question is whether the economic thought cannot also be expressed in a non-theoretical way and in an essentially literary form where the narrative and the metaphor both prevail.

PROPOSALS :
An abstract of no more than 500 words of the proposed contribution should be submitted by E-mail to [email protected] in English or French with a brief CV, postal and email address.

DEADLINES :
Submission deadline 15 June 2014
Meeting of the program committee 06 September 2014
Notification to applicants 15 September 2014
Full paper submission deadline 20 December 2014

For more informations, please contact : [email protected]

MANAGING COMMITTEE
Arnaud Berthoud, Lille1-CLERSE
Annette Disselkamp, Lille1-CLERSE
Patrick Mardellat, Sciences Po Lille-CLERSE
Delphine Pouchain, Sciences Po Lille-CLERSE
Marlyse Pouchol, Reims-CLERSE

PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Arnaud Berthoud (Université Lille1-CLERSE)
Elodie Bertrand (PHARE)
Dominique Bourg (Université de Lausanne)
Alain Caillé (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense - SOPHIAPOL)
François Dermange (Université de Genève)
Daniel Diatkine (Université d'Evry-Val-d'Essonne-PHARE)
Annette Disselkamp (Université Lille1-CLERSE)
Ragip Ege (Université de Strasbourg-BETA)
Céline Ehrwein Nihan (HEIG du Canton de Vaud-Unité RHM)
Olivier Favereau (Université Paris Ouest-Nanterre La Défense-EconomiX)
André Lapidus (Université Paris1-PHARE)
Patrick Mardellat (Sciences Po Lille-CLERSE)
Denis Müller (Universités de Genève et Lausanne)
Jean-Yves Naudet (Université d'Aix-Marseille III-CREEADP)
Claire Pignol (Université Paris1-PHARE)
Delphine Pouchain (Sciences Po Lille-CLERSE)
Marlyse Pouchol (Université de Reims-CLERSE)
Birger Priddat (Universität Witten-Herdecke)
Nathalie Sartou-Lajus (Revue Etudes)
Stefano Solari (Universita di Padova)
Ramon Tortajada (Université PMF Grenoble2)