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. 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, with compelling and highly readable analyses, explains why it must also be at the core of social ethics in the twenty-first century. This book is a deeply interrogative wakeup call to social ethicists and theologians—the era of ignoring economic ethics is over. 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, Walter G. Muelder Professor of Social Ethics, Boston University, and author of Economics in Spirit and Truth: A Moral Philosophy of Finance
Ever since the 2008 financial crisis, the issue of increasing private and public debts has become topical in the field of the humanities and social sciences. Ilsup Ahn’s Just Debt: Theology, Ethics, and Neoliberalism contributes to an already lively debate by situating the discussion on the terrain of religious morality.
~Jean François Bissonnette, Reading Religion
Ahn impressively crafts an ethical discussion that is wide-ranging, engaging and readable, and draws on diverse voices and traditions. It should broadly interest social ethicists, economists and philosophers. His compelling proposal for ‘just debt’ balances realism and hope, and seems a feasible and timely intervention. Numerous examples and case studies winsomely illustrate his argument.
~Jacob Rollison, Studies in Christian Ethics
This is an important and well-researched book that expands a conversation about wealth inequalities and poverty among theologians, ethicists, and religious leaders. It will be of particular interest to leaders in the ecumenical movement.
~Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty, Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology
The author does what many theorists find difficult in that he is able to hold in tension a systematic critique of neoliberalism alongside a hopeful vision of a reconstructed economy of debt which 'preserves social cohesion and solidarity.' This book is a wonderful resource for both advanced undergraduate and graduate-level classes on economics viewed from the lens of religious ethics.
~B. Scott Stephens, Religious Studies Review
The book offers a helpful introduction to complex issues, and is marked by admirable symmetry within and among its chapters. Furthermore, in his exposition and evaluation, Ahn strikes a tone that is warmly passionate and grounded in Christian conviction, without resorting to illogical hyperbole or ideological shrillness. As a result, scholars from several disciplines (including comparative religion, anthropology, and political philosophy), as well as Christians who simply desire to learn more about economic ethics, will discover in Just Debt a compelling read.
~Joshua Beckett, Christian Scholars Review
…Ahn’s book is an important resource for readers concerned with global debt and economic justice, as well as those interested in applying interreligious scholarship to social ethics.
~Andrew Stone Porter, Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics
