Review of The Economy of Desire: Christianity and Capitalism in a Postmodern World

by Luke Buffington

The Economy of Desire: Christianity and Capitalism in a Postmodern World by Daniel Bell is one installment in a series called The Church and Postmodern Culture, that seeks to engage postmodern thinking and philosophy and explore the ways in which the church should embrace it, challenge it, or interact with it.  In this installment, Daniel M. Bell Jr., builds on Michel Foucault’s and Giles Deleuze’s understandings of desire and its relation to capitalism, and extends their conceptual framework to create what he calls a “Christian economy of desire.”  In doing so he creates a critique of the capitalist system that is based on the way in which it forms and shapes desires contrary to God’s desire for humanity. While his sketch of capitalism and its supporters is, as I will explain later, a bit lacking in nuance and charity, his critique is none the less a powerful call to self-reflection and maybe more importantly a call into community for Christian’s living in a post-modern capitalist world.

In the first section of the book Bell begins by examining the works of Foucault and Deleuze in order to help the reader understand the concept of desire as he uses it throughout the book.  Deleuze in particular focuses on desire as a primal creative force that cannot be contained. In his narrative for centuries the state-form sought to find ways to control and subordinate desire to its purposes, but desire eventually became to much to contain. Next, capitalism came along and as an alternative, trying to direct and harness the creative power of desire to its own ends. In this way, capitalism was more successful than previous state-forms, but Deleuze still sees capitalism as repressive of desire, and urges reformers to, instead of trying to find new state-forms such as socialism, to embrace the anarchaic nature of desire and let it subsume capitalism. Bell later brings to doubt whether desire can properly overcome the capitalist system’s ability to shape and form it towards its own ends, but regardless, Bell at least is interested in painting capitalism as more than a mode of production, but instead an economy of desire.

In the second section of the book, he then proceeds to sketch a capitalist anthropology, based on what are generally considered to be the underlying assumptions of economists. He draws on quotes from scores economists to paint the picture of “homo economicus” or the economic man. It is clear that Bell is well read and has immersed himself in the writings of great economists. However, it is in this section where I feel he is less charitable than he could be in his depiction of various figures. Particularly, Bell characterizes Adam Smith as the consummate individualist and sets him up as a sort of false prophet preaching the gospel of a disinterested deistic god who simply controls and directs sin toward good using the invisible hand. While he may be write that Smith was more a deist than a professing Christian (there is much debate about Smith’s religious views) Smith was not as individualistic as Bell would lead readers to believe. In fact, Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments is largely focused on understanding how humans develop moral sentiments and is heavily focused on community and group dynamics as a source of moral understanding.  To be fair to Bell, he may be more critiquing the caricature of Smith that neo-classical economics has created, since economists themselves have not done well at understanding the nuance is Smith until fairly recently. Either way, the capitalist anthropology Bell lays out, one that individualism, utility maximization, freedom of choice, insatiable desire, and competition is broadly accepted to a degree that the specifics of his claims in this section are not of great importance to his argument.

In the next section he explains how the capitalist formation of desire is at odds with a Christian economy of desire. The focus on the individual, for one, is at odds with what Bell seems to put as God’s central goal for humanity, to bring us into community with one another. Indeed, the focus on autonomy and negative freedom in the capitalist order lead to a rejection of the existence of a greater good (sometimes called value subjectivism). For Bell, this sets us up to be in bondage to capital since Christian understanding of freedom is not about non-interference but about being in line with God’s desire for us, and thus free from the bondage of sin.  He also takes objection to capitalism’s assumption that human desire is insatiable and infinite. He claims that we should instead seek to desire God, rather then material things or even such goods as honor or knowledge. Since the perpetuation of capitalism and its focus on growth is contingent on wants never running out, capitalism’s very survival is contingent on forming human desire to never be satisfied and never rest, as God’s design would have it. Before moving on to his vision for a Christian economy of desire he, briefly turns the critical lens back on Foucault and Deleuze, explaining how their alternative view to capitalism, the freeing and unbounded desire is not compatible with Christianity. Their vision is also based on the unbounded and infinite nature of desire. While less centralized than capitalism, it would do nothing to properly turn our desire toward God.

In his final section, Bell explains the alternative vision he sees for a Christian economy of desire. He draws on the monastic tradition to highlight the virtue of poverty, both voluntary and involuntary. He recognizes that a complete transformation of desire before the resurrection is impossible, and instead calls Christian’s to a diaspora of pilgrim economy. Christian’s should embrace their obligations to one another rather than seek autonomy and individual liberty and thus give freely. Additionally, they should recognize that nothing they own is truly theirs, but all should be directed towards God’s ends, which means that it will be redirected toward helping one another. They should trust in God’s providence and abundance rather than fighting to secure their future. All of this will allow them to make progress in reforming their desire to want the things of God rather than the things of this world such as excessive material possessions, honor or status, or even safety and security. He holds up various movements such as the Catholic Workers Movement and the Foculare as examples of how God is moving in the world, and how even if it can never be complete before the end times, there is sufficient hope and possibility that we can reform our desire and seek sanctification even in todays world.

In summary, Bell’s book as dense as it is brief. Bell is incredibly well read in theology, philosophy, and economics (as evidenced by the nearly 400 endnotes in this fairly short book). While his critique of capitalism is at times scathing, it is clear that he recognizes the fundamental creative power of the system. Unlike many other critics, it is not this he challenges. Instead he makes a convincing case for why the very things capitalist society values and promotes may be contrary to God’s values. It is not clear to what extent Bell would be willing to accept the potentially negative material consequences of a widespread adoption of his views, though I presume he would find then acceptable if more people cam closer to God along the way In this sense Bell provides a somewhat unique perceptive that should challenge any reflective Christian to self-examination and hopefully into greater community with God and one another.