Benedikt Koehler, editor of Faith in Markets?, a new compilation published by the IEA on the religious foundations of a free society has written about the book in Conservative Home.

Benedikt wrote:

“Christians and Muslims made original contributions to providing poor relief. The Gospels repeatedly showed Jesus handing out alms and feeding multitudes. Muhammad put welfare on a new footing. Islamic jurists devised the waqf, a special-purpose vehicle for distributing philanthropy, which some centuries later became a blueprint for a Common Law innovation in England, the trust.

“Muhammad’s mercantile savvy showed up in a host of other pro-business provisions. The most consequential one was price deregulation, which helped launch Muslims on a dynamic economic trajectory, as it did Jews and Christians who copied them.

“Faith in Markets? shows that in the modern era, the relationship between religion and economics became tense once economics had slipped from the grasp of prophets and priests. Thomas More’s title for his economic fairyland was apt: Utopia. The modern era has wrested economics out of the hands of religions. Sacred and secular spheres now lead segregated lives.”

Read Benedikt’s full piece here.

Find our more about Faith in Markets? here.