ABSTRACT
On May 20, 2009, in the aftermath of the American-spawned global financial crisis, the United States Congress passed legislation entitled The Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009, which simultaneously created the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) to oversee the recovery efforts and explore the precipitating causes of the crisis. The response to this problem is to develop a theory of Spiritual Capital that can serve as a catalyst for individual, institutional, and societal renewal, resulting in economic practice that is rooted in social ontology and guided by a moral core. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book takes a historical look at how current forms of capitalism have evolved from the earliest days of Old Testament and Islamic economic practices and Aristotle’s household economy, through the current practices of neoliberal capitalism promoted by Milton Friedman.
