Neoliberal theorists valued Christianity instrumentally for enforcing market submission, not from faith.
Evidence
The neoliberal embrace of Christianity was not necessarily a product of faith. Hayek was himself agnostic, but he believed that Christianity was essential for cultivating the morals of the market and the willingness to submit to the market order. A ‘refusal to submit to anything we cannot understand’, he warned in The Road to Serfdom, ‘must lead to the destruction of our civilization’. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 123
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the reader’s existing knowledge of Hayek’s Road to Serfdom and to debates on the ethics of markets — the instrumental-religious grounding of the market order is central to critiques of neoliberal theology. — connects to: Free-market advocates believed market defense required a holistic spiritual worldview — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free…, 354; Neoliberals treated individual freedom as a moral principle yet sought reconciliation with religion — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 2135; Neoliberalism treats freedom as an absolute moral principle divorced from religion — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 181
- DEFINE: Clarifies that the neoliberal relation to Christianity was instrumental/subordinating, not confessional.
Broader Connections
- Neoliberals treated individual freedom as a moral principle yet sought reconciliation with religion
#expands(0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2135 - Neoliberalism treats freedom as an absolute moral principle divorced from religion
#contradicts(0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 181