June 22, 2005

MINNEAPOLIS – As international economic change accelerates and globalization becomes inevitable, Christians and others have asked: Are there any fair and viable alternatives to global capitalism?

In her new book, Economy of Grace, University of Chicago theologian Kathryn Tanner answers affirmatively in this creative proposal for evaluating economic theory and a practical program for change. She finds in the Christian story an unyielding concern with economic matters and specific principles of economics and economic justice that can be brought into conversation with global capitalism today.

At the heart of that story is the reality of God's gift of grace, a noncompetitive relationship that models a very different type of economy.

"In a money-driven global economy in which the rules of the market appear incorrigible and the consequences for the poor appalling, Tanner boldly develops a realistic alternative economy of grace. She unrelentingly sets God's grace off from the market assumptions and yet does not attempt to generate a new economy apart from the workings of the present system. In fact, the startling claim is that the world capitalist system can benefit from ‘theological economy.' Tanner's arguments about unconditional giving, noncompetitive economic relations, and turning private goods into public goods will stimulate a wide-ranging debate. . . . This is the kind of book that prompts important and sustained argument. It is a ‘must read.'" –M. Douglas Meeks, Vanderbilt University Kathryn Tanner is Professor of Theology at the Divinity School, University of Chicago, and author of God and Creation in Christian Theology (1988), The Politics of God (1992), Theories of Culture (1997), and Jesus, Humanity, and the Trinity (2001), all from Fortress Press.

Format: Paperback, 172 pages, 5.5 x 8.5 inches; ISBN: 0-8006-3774-7; Price: $16.00; Publisher: Fortress Press, Minneapolis, MN.

To order Economy of Grace call Fortress Press at 1-800-328-4648 or visit the Web site at http://www.augsburgfortress.com/.

Fortress Press