Religious Resistance to Neoliberalism

Religious Resistance to Neoliberalism offers compelling and intersectional religious critiques of neoliberalism. Neoliberalism is the normative rationality of contemporary global capitalism that orders people to live by the generalized principle of competition in all social spheres of life. Keri Day asserts that neoliberalism and its moral orientations consequently breed radical distrust, lovelessness, disconnection, and alienation within society. She argues that engaging black feminist and womanist religious perspectives with Jewish and Christian discourses offers more robust critiques of a neoliberal economy. Employing womanist and black feminist religious perspectives, this book provides six theoretical, theologically constructive arguments to challenge the moral fragmentation associated with global markets. It strives to envision a pragmatic politics of hope.

Keri Day is Associate Professor of Theological and Social Ethics and Director of Black Church Studies at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University, USA. Her previous publication includes Unfinished Business: Black Women, The Black Church, and the Struggle to Thrive in America (2012).

“In Religious Resistance to Neoliberalism, Keri Day seeks to describe our world with this economic execration, and proposes that religious responses offer a potential for the restoration of human flourishing in a society increasingly concerned only with the bottom line. … This book is essential reading for, among others, those interested in feminist theology and in critical investigations of capitalism. It is deeply informed by the black feminist tradition.” (Kevin Hargaden, Studies in Christian Ethics, Vol. 31 (03), 2018)

'Keri Day insightfully probes the role of religion in neoliberalism, incorporating a fresh, exciting, politicized understanding of the erotic. Trenchant critiques of neoliberalism foreground some of the most socioeconomically vulnerable populations. US womanist and black feminist ideas alongside European theorists productively aid Day's re-envisioning of human flourishing in economic life. Concrete examples and clarity of writing make this a great text for the classroom.' - Traci C. West, Professor of Ethics and African American Studies, Drew University Theological School, USA

'Day argues persuasively that an appropriate response to neoliberalism requires religious imagination grounded in Jewish, Christian, and black feminist and womanist religio-cultural perspectives. Day envisions local beloved communities as the crux of a new global order. This book can be used in both seminary classrooms and doctoral seminars because Day expertly uses theories and cultural artifacts to craft religious ethical reflection that informs and inspires us to flourish as moral agents and communities in the twenty-first century.' - Marcia Y. Riggs, J. Erskine Love Professor of Christian Ethics, Columbia Theological Seminary, USA