But like it or not, that is not our world.
Where policy questions have an ethical dimension, religious leaders have a public voice. On issues ranging from abortion to stem cell research and same-sex marriage to climate change, they speak out of their traditions on problems of the day - often on both sides of a given controversy.
Increasingly the same is true of economic issues.
Less than two weeks before its Annual Meeting in Davos, the World Economic Forum has released a new report: Faith and the Global Agenda: Values for a Post-Crisis Economy. Produced in collaboration with Georgetown University, the report features critical reflections from sixteen world religious leaders, including Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Drawing on diverse faith traditions, the essays call for a departure from narrow economic self-interest and for greater emphasis on values of integrity, solidarity, and care for the environment.
The World Economic Forum is a powerful global platform not widely associated with faith and values questions. But as Forum Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab and Georgetown President John DeGioia argue in the report preface, the stability and legitimacy of the post-crisis economy may depend in large part on its values foundation.
A Facebook poll featured in the report supports this view. More than two-thirds of 130,000 respondents in ten countries view the current economic crisis as one of ethics and values as well. When asked to identify the values most important for the global political and economic system, almost 40% of the respondents chose honesty, integrity and transparency; 24% chose others' rights, dignity and views; 20% chose the impact of actions on the well-being of others; and 17% chose preserving the environment.
These numbers do not point to clear policy prescriptions. But they do suggest an increasing openness to the values-dimension of economic life and the importance of a sustained public debate.
Faith leaders do not have a privileged voice in that debate. But wherever religion is increasingly visible in public life - in Atlantic democracies and around the world - their voices matter. We should listen carefully to what they have to say on the economic crisis and the way forward.
Thomas Banchoff is director of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and serves as vice president for global engagement at Georgetown University, where he is a professor in the Department of Government and the Walsh School of Foreign Service.
