8. Economics and Religion, What Is the Relationship?: A Case Study of Nordic Social Democracy

Nelson argues that the modern era remains as deeply religious as any previous era in western history. But the outward form of religion often changed radically; new ‘secular religions’ claim that they are grounded in science, even as the underlying belief systems remained surprisingly true to the Christian heritage from which they were derived. In the many modern ‘economic religions’ such as Marxism and the American progressive ‘gospel of efficiency,’ the path of economic progress, leading eventually to the abolition of economic scarcity, would lead to a secular salvation of the world. This chapter examines Nordic social democracy as a case study: how Lutheranism was secularized to become the social democratic path to a new Nordic heaven on earth.