ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the interpretation of the capital form of money as a functional equivalent for religion is subject to a closer examination. According to Niklas Luhmann, self-descriptions of society always have two functions, an internal and an external one: they enable society to identify itself by defining an all-encompassing level of sociality and of the socially knowable. By the same token, they open the view on extra-social contingencies. The two functions are discussed with regard to capitalism in each of the two sections of the chapter. As will be shown, the answer to the question of whether capitalism can fulfil the basic functions of religion is ambivalent in both cases. On the one hand, capitalism has created a worldwide social nexus that surpasses even the realms of religion-based civilisations and truly includes all of mankind. On the other hand, disembedded markets, just due to their universality, represent an extremely thin and rudimentary level of sociality, falling behind the substantial solidarity provided by religious, ethnic, and kinship identities, and being dependent on their factual symbiosis with the latter. As the globalisation literature shows, this symbiosis is everything but a stable and harmonious one; rather it is prone to self-destructive feedback circles. Considering the external side of contingency management (the second function), capitalism indeed shows parallels with the religions, as it is determined to guide men into new, promised lands via the Schumpeterian process of ‘creative destruction’. However, while the religious believer finds his fulfilment in the faithful acquiescence to God’s will, capitalism finds its mission in the transformation and mastery of the outer world, which can never reach a state of stable tranquillity. Instead of a simple equation of capitalism with religion, Paul Tillich’s concept of ‘the demonic’ appears more adequate to characterise the inherently instable nature of capitalism.
