Send Lazarus: Catholicism and the Crises of Neoliberalism

A critique of and response to systems founded on indifference toward the needs and desires of people and God’s creation.

Today’s regnant global economic and cultural system, neoliberal capitalism, demands that life be led as a series of sacrifices to the market. Send Lazarus’s theological critique wends its way through four neoliberal crises: environmental destruction, slum proliferation, mass incarceration, and mass deportation, all while plumbing the sacrificial and racist depths of neoliberalism.

Praise for Send Lazarus

“One of the best theological engagements with economics available. The critique of neoliberalism is spot-on: It is a type of class warfare that does not shrink the state but empowers it to protect the market from the people. The market is sublime and cannot be controlled by people. Neoliberalism is thus a type of theology for a deified market, and Eggemeier and Fritz respond with a compelling Christian theology of a God who wants mercy, not sacrifice. If you want a vision of a world beyond today’s suffering and inequality, read this book. ” —William T. Cavanaugh, DePaul University

“In Send Lazarus: Catholicism and the Crises of Neoliberalism, they propose the popular devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as a counterpractice for resisting the heartlessness of neoliberalism and throwaway culture … Weaving together Pope Francis, St. Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Walter Kasper, and Jesuit Father Karl Rahner, all of whom write of their strong devotion to the Sacred Heart, Eggemeier and Fritz prompted me to reconsider the devotion's relevance in today's world. ” —Meghan J. Clark, US Catholic

“Required reading for those interested in theological responses to neoliberalism or concerned with social injustice. Highly recommended. ” —Choice

© 2020 Fordham University Press (Ebook): 9780823288021

Release date

Ebook: May 5, 2020