good reads | Capital and Ideology, by Thomas Piketty, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Cambridge MA: Belknap Press, 2020)
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homas Piketty, French economist and advocate for social justice, follows up on Capital (English ed., 2014) with an expansive book chronicling the interplay of wealth (capital) and the stories that elites tell to justify their relative wealth (ideology). Using the best available data, he chronicles the ebb and flow of “inequality regimes” from pre-revolutionary France to the neo-liberal resurgence of wealth inequality around the world since the 1980s. He broadens his earlier analysis to include discussions of the evolution of the economies of India, China, the Soviet Union/Russia, and Brazil. He stresses that in every case ideology mattered as much as technological change or what counts as wealth (e.g., owning financial instruments versus land ownership). While most defenses of wealth imply that the rich deserve to be well off and the poor are poor because of God’s plans or their own moral defects, Piketty’s global analysis demonstrates that large differences between the haves and the have-nots are the result of social interactions. Things could have been—and can in future—be otherwise than they are. Piketty also documents the changing demographics of politics. Liberal parties (like Labour in the UK and the Democratic party in the USA) used to receive most of their support from relatively uneducated working people; now they are parties of the well-educated “Brahmin left” with scant support from the working classes. Parties of the right and the left seem to be satisfied with the current amount of economic inequality in their countries (perhaps echoing the position of Bernie Sanders). According to Piketty, experience demonstrates that religion can be used to defend existing inequality regimes as well as challenge them. When
board actions | The Austin Seminary Board of Trustees took the following actions with regard to faculty at its spring 2020 meeting, May 22-23: • Granted tenure to Gregory Cuéllar, associate professor of Old Testament,
Christian Britain abolished slavery, for instance, parliament compensated former slave owners for the loss of their property; the Christian abolitionists gave no thought to indemnifying former enslaved persons. Piketty is concerned that too much inequality between the richest 10 percent and the poorest 50 percent of people within a country and globally is morally indefensible and does not promote economic growth. He worries that unjust structures are too easily perpetuated by pitting disadvantaged groups against each other (e.g., the antiMuslim policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party in India). He concludes his book with a proposal to establish “democratic socialism.” In his scheme, the current system that sacralizes private ownership is replaced by a regime that prevents inherited wealth and class privilege from being endlessly recycled. Key features of his plan are progressive taxation on annual income and wealth, provision of guaranteed basic income, and equitable access to education. Unlike Sovietstyle communism (which failed spectacularly both from an economic and humanist perspective), Piketty’s democratic socialism insists that workers hold board seats on private corporations (on the existing German model) and that elected assemblies debate and pass taxes in a transparent manner. If all of this seems unlikely, Piketty would remind us that in 1870 Sweden had the largest gap between the rich elite and the poor masses in Europe; by 1980 it was the most egalitarian society in the world. Piketty’s book is a stunning scholarly achievement showing that local economies have been linked for centuries and that economic arrangements are human works, not baked into creation. For Christians experiencing a pandemic that has placed racial and economic disparities under a bright light, Piketty’s book is timely reading. v —Reviewed by Rev. Dr. Timothy Lincoln, research professor in theological education and director of the Stitt Library
effective July 1, 2020, and approved a six-month sabbatical, August 1, 2021 – February 1, 2022 • Promoted Carolyn Helsel to associate professor of homiletics, effective July 1, 2020, and accepted her sabbatical report • Reappointed Paul Hooker as associate dean for ministerial formation and advanced studies, effective July 1, 2020,
for a renewable annual term • Reappointed David Johnson as associate professor of church history and Christian spirituality, effective July 1, 2020, for a renewable annual term • Accepted the sabbatical report of David Jensen • Accepted the sabbatical report of Eric Wall. v Summer | Fall 2020 | 19
