Work Out Your Salvation

<p>In <i>Work Out Your Salvation</i> D. Glenn Butner Jr. demonstrates that participation in markets forms our moral character perceptions actions and ideas. Drawing on experimental economics and moral theology he argues that the nature of such formation varies based on the design of the market and our interactions within it. How he asks does formation of the market relate to the formation of grace--providence justification and sanctification? Are these forces at war for our souls? </p><p>Through a detailed analysis of these three doctrines and the theology of common grace and concurrent divine/human action <i>Work Out Your Salvation</i> argues that God can work through the social context of markets through human identity and through economic incentive structures to foster providentially the created basis for the supernatural gifts of justification and sanctification. Careful and theologically guided participation in a market can by common grace provide the occasion for positive spiritual formation through concurrent divine action. </p><p>However such formation is not guaranteed. Maladaptive practices ideas and identities can also be fostered by markets not oriented toward a supernatural end. Butner provides detailed evidence backed by extensive experimental and empirical research as to which market practices allow Christians to work out their salvation (Phil 2:12) and which practices resist such moral transformation. <i>Work Out Your Salvation</i> undermines simplistic endorsements or rejections of capitalism in favor of more nuanced analysis and lays bare which features of markets make us better and which make us worse. </p>