4 – 8 July 2022, University of Antwerp

The Antwerp Summer School for 2022 will focus on fundamental questions about our financial system on the nature of time, value and money. You get a stimulating engagement with key topics and thinkers at the intersection of philosophy, economics, ethics and theology.

Contemporary discussions on the ethics of finance and the prospects of more sustainable banking systems surface on regular occasions, not just at the edge of the financial system but also at its core. It is not just a Western concern as the rapid rise of Islamic banking proves. In its origin, many of these concerns with finance have a religious background, but today what might have seemed like unnecessary religious fetters in the secular world of finance have become general concerns because of the ongoing financial, economic and environmental crises. 

This summer school returns to the historical roots of the criticism of the financial system and looks at the usury debate from the contemporary perspective of banking and economic decision making on long term horizons. What can the contemporary debate learn from the moral and theological frameworks that were employed in the usury debate? The summer school offers an interdisciplinary program aimed at untangling the moral, economical, metaphysical and theological dimensions of that debate. Many of these arguments come back in the contemporary Islamic discussion on usury and play a strong part in discussions about things as diverse as nuclear energy, climate change and our relation to future generations. 

Speakers

Wim Decock: “Money, Time and Industry: Lessius and the Breakdown of the Scholastic Paradigm on Interest-Taking and Usury”

Philip Goodchild: “Credit and Debt: Between theology and economics” | “Finance as Salvation”

Bruno Colmant: “Melting money: the view from a physiocrat”

Sean Capener: “The So-Called ’Thief of Time’” |  “Money and Sophistry”

Imane Karich: “Theory and practice of Islamic finance”

Luc van Liedekerke: “The economics of time preference” | “Time-preference and climate change”

Michaël Bauwens: “Time, money and God: metaphysical investigations”

Target group

Master and PhD students in philosophy, economics or theology, but open to advanced Bachelor, Master and PhD students in these three or closely related fields like Islamic finance, sustainable finance and others. Participants should have at least completed two full years of undergraduate education (Bachelor level). 

For more information: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/summer-winter-schools/time-money-god/