Reaching For Heaven On Earth Book

...this is the most profound book on the boundary of theology and economics in the past couple of decades. It has a depth of perspective, a scope of scholarship and a discernment that is rare in this field.-CHRISTIAN CENTURY

Author Biography: Robert Nelson has been a visiting scholar with the Brookings Institution, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the Political Economy Research Center. He has written widely on economic and environmental issues including "Zoning and Property Rights: An Analysis of the American System of Land Use Regulation" (MIT Press) and such journals as "Forbes", and the "Wall Street Journal."

Library Journal

Theology and economics appear to be unrelated subjects--one based upon faith, the other upon fact. Nelson, however, declares that economics is grounded not in scientific fact, but in a faith in economic progress. Economic theology preaches that the root of all evil is economic scarcity, and that the removal of economic scarcity will create a ``heaven on earth.'' Beginning with a look at Aristotle and Plato, the author moves through economic history to the theories of economists John Maynard Keynes, Paul Anthony Samuelson, and Milton Friedman. In a closing section, he notes that humanity's faith in economic progress has been shaken by events in the 20th century like the development of the atomic bomb. While Nelson's treatment of the subject is well organized and researched, his book's appeal may be limited to those interested in an in-depth study of the history of economic thought. For large religion and economics collections.-- Joanna M. Thompson, Bluefield State Coll., W.Va.