About the Book
Today’s regnant global economic and cultural system, neoliberal capitalism, demands that life be led as a series of sacrifices to the market. Send Lazarus’s theological critique wends its way through four neoliberal crises: environmental destruction, slum proliferation, mass incarceration, and mass deportation, all while plumbing the sacrificial and racist depths of neoliberalism.
Table of Contents:
List of Abbreviations | ix
Introduction | 1
Introducing Neoliberalism, 2 • Catholic Critique of Neoliberalism, 4 •
Chapter Outlines, 7 • Send Lazarus, 11
Part I : Catholic Social Thought and the Economy
1 Catholic Social Thought against Economism | 15
Modern Catholic Social Thought, 17 • John Paul II on
Economism, 20 • Benedict XVI: Against an Impersonal
Economy, 33 • Francis: No to a Faceless Economy, 46 •
Papal Continuity, 56
Part II: Neoliberalism
2 Neoliberal Capitalism | 65
Neoliberalism as PoliticalEconomy, 66 •
Neoliberalism as Common Sense, 76 •
Ethos of Mercilessness, 86
3 Sacrifice, Race, and Indifference | 94
Sacrifice Zones, Earth, and Slums, 96 • Racial Neoliberalism,
Mass Incarceration, and Mass Deportation, 110 •
Neoliberalism as Culture of Indifference, 123
Part III: Catholic Mercy in a Neoliberal Age
4 A Theology of Mercy | 133
Trinity, Mystery, and Mercy, 134 • Anthropology, Ecclesiology,
and Mercy, 144 • The Works and the Politics of Mercy, 153
5 The Politics of Mercy against Neoliberal Sacrifice | 164
Universal Destination of Goods, 165 • Visit the Sick, 167 •
Give Food, Drink, and Clothing, 175 • Abolitionism, 180 •
Ransom the Captive, 188 • Welcome the Stranger, 195
Conclusion: For Holistic Mercy | 205
Acknowledgments| 209
Notes | 211
Bibliography | 245
Index | 269
About the Author :
Matthew T. Eggemeier (Author)
Matthew T. Eggemeier is associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross, where he teaches courses on Catholic social teaching, political theology, and liberation theology. He is the author of A Sacramental-Prophetic Vision: Christian Spirituality in a Suffering World (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2014) and Against Empire: Ekklesial Resistance and the Politics of Radical Democracy, Theopolitical Visions series (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2020).
Peter Joseph Fritz (Author)
Peter Joseph Fritz is associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He has taught varied courses in modern Catholic theology, the history of Christianity since the Reformation, Catholic social teaching, theological aesthetics, and theology and art. He is author of Karl Rahner’s Theological Aesthetics (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2014) and Freedom Made Manifest: Rahner’s Fundamental Option and Theological Aesthetics (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2019).
Review :
This book is one of the best theological engagements with economics available. The critique of neoliberalism is spot-on: It is a type of class warfare that does not shrink the state but empowers it to protect the market from the people. The market is sublime and cannot be controlled by people. Neoliberalism is thus a type of theology for a deified market, and Eggemeier and Fritz respond with a compelling Christian theology of a God who wants mercy, not sacrifice. If you want a vision of a world beyond today's suffering and inequality, read this book.---William T. Cavanaugh, DePaul University
To me, devotion to the Sacred Heart always felt like an individualized private devotion until I found myself challenged by a new book by theologians Matthew Eggemeier and Peter Fritz, who propose the Sacred Heart as a public devotion for the 21st century. In Send Lazarus: Catholicism and the Crises of Neoliberalism, they propose the popular devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a counterpractice for resisting the heartlessness of neoliberalism and throwaway culture... Weaving together Pope Francis, St. Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Walter Kasper, and Jesuit Father Karl Rahner, all of whom write of their strong devotion to the Sacred Heart, Eggemeier and Fritz prompted me to reconsider the devotion's relevance in today's world.---Meghan J. Clark, U.S. Catholic
[T]his book is required reading for those interested in theological responses to neoliberalism or concerned
with social injustice. Highly recommended.
-- "Choice"
