HONEST TO BLOG

Where's The Beef?

This evening, Peter Berger gave what I can only call a mere "homily" at the University with the Society for International Development. I was hoping for an involved lecture; a serious theoretical discourse. In any case, what he did say was interesting enough.

He touched on the resurgence of religion in the world (minus Europe), and its impact on international socio-economic development. Taking his cue from Weber (and borrowing from someone else, I think), Berger spoke of contemporary "functional equivalents" to the Protestant ethic among various traditions. He spoke about vangaurds, economic discipline, the advantages of arriving late, the slow death of LatinAmerican machismo, and "new" (borrowed or latent) values and institutions that foster sustainable growth.

He didn't go into much detail about how various religious beliefs specifically produced an equivalent culture or ethos for economy. But I got the basic idea.