Devin Singh
| Devin Singh is Associate Professor of Religion at Dartmouth College, where he teaches courses on religious thought in the West, social ethics, and the philosophy of religion. He is the author of Divine Currency: The Theological Power of Money in the West (Stanford 2018), which reveals the ancient links between money and Christian doctrine, and Economy and Modern Christian Thought (Brill 2022), which introduces the study of Christianity and economics. He is also co-editor of Reimagining Leadership on the Commons (Emerald 2021), which examines models of shared governance in organizations. Singh is finishing a book titled Sacred Debt, which explores the power of debt in society and its longstanding uses in religion. His work has appeared in periodicals such as Time, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Journal of Religious Ethics, Harvard Theological Review, and Political Theology. Outside academia, Singh provides coaching and consulting to individuals and firms on values-based leadership and social impact. |
For centuries, Christian theology cast greed and avarice as grave moral failings, corrosive both to the soul and to society. Yet in modern economic thought, a radical reimagining took hold: greed and self-interest were no longer merely vices to suppress, but engines of productivity, innovation, and wealth. How did this shift occur, and what does it mean for us today? This lecture recalls the theological and philosophical origins of the idea of beneficial self-interest, as it both used and departed from earlier Christian moral teachings. We examine what “greed” and “self-interest” mean and ask whether they bring satisfaction, fulfilment, and communal connection. We also consider visions of economic life involving cooperation, reciprocity, and mutual flourishing, exploring alternatives to zero-sum competition and the possibility of more humane and sustainable forms of exchange.