Just Debt: Theology, Ethics, and Neoliberalism

Lindberg Professor of Philosophy at North Park University and Carnegie Council Global Ethics Fellow. He is also an editor of Asian American Christian Ethics: Voices, Methods, Issues.. Ilsup Ahn is Carl I

His holistic approach to the problem creates an interdisciplinary conversation, emphasizes the ethical crisis, and sustains a hopeful spirit, all in perceptive and compelling fashion."Gary Dorrien, author of Kantian Reason and Hegelian Spirit: The Idealistic Logic of Modern Theology"Debt is at the core of the encompassing neoliberal economy and its logic. "Ilsup Ahn adeptly shows how fantastic capitalist productivity combined with fantastic disparities has created a colossal, many-layered debt burden that crushes the poor of the world and inflicts immense harm on many others. Those of them who want to remain relevant must pay attention to the lessons of this book, broaden its insights, and savor its alternative logic."Nimi Wariboko,

Debtpersonal, corporate, governmentalis so pervasive in contemporary economies, with its moralistic logic nearly unquestioned. Debt, as gift, had moral ends. Debt's necessity renders it morally neutral, absolving it of the dehumanizing effect it brings in unbridled financialization. In Just Debt Ilsup Ahn explores ethical implications of the practice of debt. By placing debt in the context of anthropology, philosophy, economics, and the ethical traditions provided by the Abrahamic religions, Ahn holds that debt was originally a form of gift, a gift which was intended as a means to serve humanity. In order for debt to be justly established, its story should be free from elements of exploitation, abuse, and manipulation and should conform to the principles of serviceability, payability, and shareability. Although the contemporary global economy disconnects debt from its context, Ahn argues that debt must be firmly grounded in the world of moral values, social solidarity, and political resolution. By re-embedding debt within its moral world, Just Debt offers a holistic ethics of debt for a neoliberal age.. Since the late eighteenth century, however, debt has been reduced to an amoral economic tool, one separated from its social and political context. Ahn recovers an ethics of debt and its moral economy by rediscov