Reaching for Heaven on Earth

Robert Nelson has been a visiting scholar with the Brookings Institution, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the Political Economy Research Center. He has written widely on economic and environmental issues including Zoning and Property Rights: An Analysis of the American System of Land Use Regulation (MIT Press) and such journals as Forbes, and the Wall Street Journal.

...this is the most profound book on the boundary of theology and economics in the past couple of decades. It has a depth of perspective, a scope of scholarship and a discernment that is rare in this field. The Christian Century ...well-organized and researched...an in-depth study of the history of economic thought. Library Journal Economists can learn a lot about their 'science' by reading this book, and, at the same time, enjoy the experience. -- James M. Buchanan, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 1986 This is the sort of thought-provoking book that every member of ACE should read and consider ...I recommend Nelson highly... The Bulletin Of The Association Of Christian Economists ... it squarely confronts the fact that the intelligible value of economic theology-Progress-is itself now in crisis... Reason Nelson can be commended for attempting such a wide-ranging survey of Western intellectual thought and for challenging readers to evaluate for themselves the place of modern economic analysis in the scheme of intellectual inquiry. -- Robert A. Black, Houghton College, Christian Scholar's Review

• The message of modern economic theology. Part 1 The origins of modern economic theology; the Roman outlook; the early protestant tradition. Part 2 Secularization and the rise of modern economic theology: the Roman church of Newton; the Protestant church of Darwin. Part 3 The Roman theology of the American welfare state: the progressive gospel of efficiency; the message of economic progressivism. Part 4 Entering a world of post-modern economics; developing a theology of economic pluralism; the right of free secession.