In What Sense Christian?: The Humane Economic Ethic of Wilhelm Ropke

Christian social thinkers who strongly support the free-market system often have drawn connections between the social values of their faith and the ideas of Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek. Hayek's comments on religion, however, seem to predict its demise for the sake of progress, whereas his colleague Wilhelm Ropke posits transcendent religion and established moral traditions as essential to a humane economy. This essay contends that what Ropke described as enmassment has similarities to the present financialization of society, which involves the rising influence of financial values in all institutions, exaggerated emphasis on quantitative performance measures, and reliance on technical processes in lieu of human relationships. Ropke's Christian humanist philosophy advances the kind of ethical entrepreneurialism needed to morally sustain a global society experiencing enmassment and financialization simultaneously.