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Do you believe in financial resurrection? Faith and debt in neoliberal Colombia.

20210519rebeccacbartel

We are being formed by these economic structures that have taken over our social worlds. The practice of tithing on credit - with money you don't have - betting on some future return, is a form of speculative faith. In a way, Christianity has done that for a really long time, I don't think it's something entirely specific to prosperity Christianity. What's specific about these kinds of prosperity Christians is that they were using credit cards, that there was a financialization of faith.

Religious studies scholar Rebecca C. Bartel on debt as a fulcrum between prosperity Christianity and neoliberal market reforms in Colombian society, and her book Card-Carrying Christians: Debt and the Making of Free Market Spirituality in Colombia from University of California Press.

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Guest

Rebecca C. Bartel

Rebecca C. Bartel is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and Associate Director for the Center for Latin American Studies at San Diego State University.

 

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