Capitalism and religion in world history : purification and progress / Carl Mosk.

Includes bibliographic references and index.

Idealism and materialism in economic history -- Axial thought traditions: from heroic myth to social control -- The pendulum swing in the Greek Axial Age -- God as king in Jewish monotheism -- Predation, gift exchange, and markets in the Roman Empire -- One God, one emperor -- Islamic merchant capitalism -- The pendulum swings of the high and late Medieval West -- Mercantilism and the pendulum swing -- Japanese merchant capitalism -- The pendulum swing in natural philosophy -- Nationalism and imperialism -- Religious nationalism and technological capitalism -- Religious civil war and the religion trap.

"Amassing riches offered to a transcendental world, the priests of ancient faiths found themselves trapped in contradiction - loan out their resources to merchants: make yourself a pariah to true prophets. Before Islam squared the circle, bringing capital mobility enhancing credit creation into coexistence with devotion, religion stymied merchant capitalism. Spread through trade, Islam's innovations in commerce soothed the path to coexistence of credit and faith globally. Had a second form of capitalism - technological capitalism - not emerged binding science to innovation, harmony between faith and capitalism would prevail"-- Provided by publisher.