ABSTRACT
Charles Eisenstein has taken-up the challenge of connecting economics and spirituality. He does this through an exploration of money, from early gift relationships to the current world, in which money circulates digitally around the globe faster than the time between two breaths. A gift economy isn't an irrational system, it is fundamental to the establishment of a web of obligations, duties, a network of gratitude, in which we recognise that we all owe each other something. The tradition of civil economy has deep roots in the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, the Benedictine monastic tradition of prayer and work and the medieval doctrine of caritas within the community. Antonio Genovesi used the term "Civil Economy" in his main treatise. As such, he had a vision of commerce in relationship to social well-being. Besides Genovesi, both of his disciples, G. Filangieri and L. Bianchini, expressed a strong belief that the process of becoming civilised required an equal distribution of wealth.
