1st Edition

Adam Smith as Theologian

Edited By Paul Oslington Copyright 2011
166 Pages
by Routledge

156 Pages
by Routledge

166 Pages
by Routledge

Adam Smith wrote in a Scotland where Calvinism, Continental natural law theory, Stoic philosophy, and the Newtonian tradition of scientific natural theology were key to the intellectual lives of his contemporaries. But what impact did these ideas have on Smith’s system? What was Smith’s understanding of nature, divine providence, and theodicy? How was the new discourse of political economy... Read more
@content:Introduction: Theological Readings of Smith. Paul Oslington  Part I: Smith in Context  1. The Influence of Religious Thinking on the Smithian Revolution. Benjamin Friedman  2. Adam Smith, Theology and Natural Law Ethics. John Haldane  3. Sympathy and Domination: Adam Smith, Happiness, and the Virtues of Augustinianism. Eric Gregory  4. Christian Freedom in Political Economy: The Legacy of John Calvin in the Thought of Adam Smith. Joe Blosser  5. Divine Action, Providence and Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand. Paul Oslington  Part II: Analysis and Assessment of Adam Smith’s Theology  6. Adam Smith, Natural Theology, and the Natural Sciences. Peter Harrison  7. How High Does The Impartial Spectator Go? James Otteson  8. Adam Smith’s Theodicy. Brendan Long  9. From Civil to Political Economy: Adam Smith’s Theological Debt. Adrian Pabst   10. Man and Society in Adam Smith’s Natural Morality: The Impartial Spectator, the Man of System, and the Invisible Hand. Ross B. Emmett  11. A Visible Hand: Contemporary Lessons from Adam Smith. Paul S. Williams

Biography

Paul Oslington holds a unique chair jointly in the School of Business and School of Theology at Australian Catholic University. He was previously Associate Professor of Economics at University of New South Wales, and held visiting positions at University of Oxford, University of British Columbia and Regent College Vancouver, and Princeton Theological Seminary and University. His PhD in Economics and Master of Economics/Econometrics with honours were completed at the University of Sydney, and Bachelor of Divinity through Melbourne College of Divinity.

"The book succeeds wonderfully in placing Smith in context, and in showing that the religious language he employed was not unique to him, but was pervasive in the era in which he wrote and lived." -Chad Flanders, St. Louis University, USA