God, Mammon, and Philanthropy

Essayist Lance Morrow’s cerebral new book God and Mammon: Chronicles of American Money generally examines the drama of money in American society, thought, and self-identity. Money, he shows, is human, paradoxical, and absolutely essential to understanding our country and ourselves. Through the stories he tells and the thoughtful—and thought-provoking—commentary with which he infuses them, Morrow’s book addresses how the American idea has worked itself out in the universal, sometimes-ruthless, and always-personal language of money.

So God and Mammon covers philanthropy in particular, too. Morrow, a longtime contributor to Time and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, asks, “How was American money to organize itself for good?”

He answers. “Two schools of thought take shape. The first of them sought the moral redemption of American wealth by philanthropy,” according to the historically and religiously informed Morrow. “The second model sought to achieve that goal by means of government.

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