Spirit of French Capitalism

Charly Coleman is Associate Professor of History at Columbia University. He is the author of The Virtues of Abandon: An Anti-Individualist History of the French Enlightenment (Stanford, 2014), which was awarded the 2016 Laurence Wylie Prize in French Cultural Studies.

• Introduction1. The Economy of the Mysteries2. Perpetual Penance and Frequent Communion3. The Spirit of Speculation4. Usury Redeemed5. The Cult of Consumption6. Luxury and the Origins of the FetishEpilogue: Encounters with Economic Theology

"With deft analysis and compelling exposition, Charly Coleman unearths the neglected yet highly significant contributions of French Catholic theology to the growth and development of capitalism. He helps us grasp why, amid supposed disenchantment and the brute materiality of modernity, commodities continue to hold such sway and consumption still promises us salvation."—Devin Singh, Dartmouth College "The Spirit of French Capitalism is a brilliant, provocative book that deserves a wide readership. Charly Coleman compellingly argues that to understand the genesis of modern capitalism, we need to understand how economic visions of unlimited consumption and plenitude arose out of the 'economic theology' of the Catholic Reformation. Delving deep into theological debates of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Coleman traces surprising connections to the period's economic thought—and economic practice as well."—David A. Bell, Princeton University "Coleman's book offers a valuable example of research on the connection of theological notions and religious practices, on the one hand, and the field of French political economy during the 17th and 18th centuries, on the other. The main contribution is definitely to clarify the long history of the semantic crossing between theological and economic representation, opening the way to future interdisciplinary research carried out between theologians and historians of economic thought. "—Maxime Menuet, Journal of Economics, Theology and Religion "What Coleman's book does..., it does well—namely, uncover ways that economic thought in the eighteenth century continued to rest upon religious sentiments. In so doing, he contributes another significant piece to the puzzle of the intellectual history of early modern France."—Daniel J. Watkins, Journal of Modern History