The Bishops and Their Critics

“Modern capitalism,” wrote John Maynard Keynes, “is absolutely irreligious, without internal union, without much public spirit, often, though not always, a mere congeries of possessors and pursuers.” Over 60 years ago, R. H. Tawney, who cited those lines from the young Keynes, set out to explore how this condition had come about. In Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, he examined the great “intellectual and moral conversion” of the 16th and 17th c...