Secularization of Social Thought

The book traces the shift from a medieval worldview where religion governed all aspects of life, including economics, to a modern one where economic activity is treated as a separate, secular sphere governed by its own laws of expediency rather than moral or religious criteria.

Examines how religious ideas about economics gradually gave way to secular economic theories.

The chapter describes the gradual secularization of economic thought after the Restoration, as the claim of religion to maintain rules of good conscience in economic affairs vanished.

The chapter highlights the growth of lay opinion that argued economics and ethics are separate, and the replacement of religious teleology with the analogy of a self-regulating mechanism driven by economic motives.

The chapter describes how Puritanism, as it became a political force, was secularized and committed to compromise.