ABSTRACT
Based on a quotation from a relatively obscure part of the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith is commonly credited with the view that self-interested behaviour is guided by the “invisible hand” of the market mechanism to promote the common good1. General concern about Western consumption patterns and the environmental crisis combine with more recent and particular examples of misconduct at the heart of the global fi nancial crisis to challenge this notion. The increasing interest in the interdisciplinary fi eld of theology and economics and the more widespread debate concerning the ‘moral basis’ of liberal capitalism respond to this challenge by re-opening 19th-century debates concerning the moral and ethical foundations of markets, and positing implicitly or explicitly a theological or ethical reorientation of economics. It is in this context that I am interested in this chapter to explore the notion of a ‘visible hand’—an explicit guiding of the market toward ends deemed moral or ethical and which the market would not meet if left to its own devices.
