Wealth in Western Thought

Based on roundtable discussions by a variety of scholars over a two-year period these essays explore the complex and often contradictory matrix of sentiments feelings and beliefs that frame America''s contemporary social doctrine of wealth. The seven Boston College faculty members whose writings comprise this volume are professors of classics economics ethics history literature scripture and sociology. Each scholar reviews a a range of writings and narratives that enunciate definite theses about the genesis and prospects as well as the uses and abuses of wealth. Today as the discussion of wealth creation and distribution become framed less frequently under the rubrics of capitalism and socialism it is propitious to examine other pieces of the debate that come to us from our Western classical biblical literary and ethical traditions. The talk for and against wealth so well articulated by Adam Smith and Karl Marx is only one axis on which this important Western motif turns. Schervish and his contributors enable us to consult several other texts that can guide our repositioning on the controversies surrounding the moral status of wealth and the wealthy.