A Bold, Biblical Challenge to the God America Actually Worships
What if the greatest threat to your faith isn't secularism, political division, or cultural decay-but the economic system you've been taught to celebrate? In Capitalism Is Inhuman, Josh Kilen makes a provocative, Scripture-saturated argument that capitalism-along with every economic system humans have invented-treats people as production units and consumption units rather than as image-bearers of God. And American Christians, he contends, have been worshiping at this altar for so long they've forgotten what God's economy actually looks like.
Across ten chapters, Kilen examines how capitalism handles the things that make us most human-having babies, eating, resting, building families, caring for the vulnerable-and measures it against Scripture's stunning economic vision: Jubilee debt cancellation, gleaning rights for the poor, Sabbath rest as moral law, and the early church's radical sharing of resources. He pairs biblical scholarship with current data on parental leave, food insecurity, wealth inequality, and burnout to reveal a system that is working exactly as designed-and failing humans in the process.
Inside, you'll discover:
- Why Scripture's economic laws-Jubilee, gleaning, interest prohibitions-aren't outdated ideals but God's blueprint for human flourishing
- How the Protestant work ethic, prosperity gospel, and Cold War politics fused Christianity with capitalism-and what it cost us
- Real-world communities-from the Bruderhof to the Catholic Worker Movement-already building economies that put people before property
- Practical ways to begin reordering your own financial life around kingdom values rather than market values
- Why trusting God's provision isn't naive-told by a man who watched God provide through unemployment, cancer, prison, and miscarriage
Capitalism Is Inhuman isn't a political manifesto for the left or the right. It's a Christ-centered invitation to stop asking "How do we grow the economy?" and start asking "Are people flourishing?" If you've ever felt the gap between Sunday's sermon and Monday's grind, this book will name what you've been sensing-and point you toward something better.
