Capitalism and Progress in 2026

Abbi Hofstede is an alum of ICS’s MA in philosophy, whose research focused on the work of Bob Goudzwaard. She is currently a sessional lecturer at The King’s University in Edmonton.

Almost one hundred years ago, John Maynard Keynes, one of the most important economists of the twentieth century, wrote that “[a]varice and usury and precaution must be our gods for a little longer still. For only they can lead us out of the tunnel of economic necessity into daylight.” In his essay, “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren,” Keynes envisioned a future where our economic problem—that is, the problem of subsistence—has been solved thanks to our obedience to the gods of avarice and usury, and our greatest challenge will be to find outlets for all of the excess leisure time we have now that we no longer need to spend most of our time labouring for our daily bread. In the West, we have now well exceeded Keynes’s predictions that material standards of living would increase by 4–8 times the levels of the 1920s, and yet, we do not have the leisure time Keynes predicted. What can account for this?

Enter Bob Goudzwaard’s Capitalism and Progress.

In Capitalism and Progress, Goudzwaard responds to Keynes’s assertion that we must put our economic fate in the hands of the gods of avarice and usury by asking in turn if those gods will let us loose once we no longer need them. At the heart of this question lies the deeper issue of human agency; in other words, once humans give up their power to the forces of economic development, is it ever possible to regain this power? For Goudzwaard, the answer to this question is “yes,” although he acknowledges that the process of regaining agency is not an easy one. Goudzwaard writes that it is “[o]nly in open confrontation with that light at the end of the tunnel, that beckoning but ever receding and hence imprisoning goal, can we find real solutions.”

This open confrontation with the false hope of “idol-making” is exactly what Goudzwaard engaged in over his career. As an economist and social philosopher at the Free University of Amsterdam, Goudzwaard’s writings continually challenged the narrow goals of economic and technological progress and confronted the predominant ideologies of the day. Goudzwaard did not only write about these topics; he lived out his convictions through his active engagement in politics on the national and global stage.

I first encountered Capitalism and Progress when I was a student at The King’s University in Edmonton, Alberta. I asked myself: how can it be that in a society where humans seemingly have more power than ever before—including the power to alter the very climate of our planet—I feel so powerless against the forces of oppression and destruction in this world?

In Capitalism and Progress, I found an answer that resonated deeply with me. Goudzwaard traces our sense of powerlessness back to the faith Western society has placed in progress. He explains how we in Western society rely on utilitarian calculations of happiness such that more economic growth is always a positive thing, technological development should never be questioned, and positivist scientific knowledge can adequately sum up the world around us. Central to Goudzwaard’s analysis is a methodology that seeks to go beyond structural analysis; it seeks out answers at the deepest level of human beliefs and motivations—in other words, faith.

Reflecting on this now, I believe this methodology is why, even as an undergraduate student, something from Capitalism and Progress resonated so deeply with me. From a Reformational perspective, Goudzwaard articulates the view that it is from this faith level that we gain not just our deepest convictions, but also our motivation for action. It’s also from this level that societal structures originate, so any attempt to alter structures without first reckoning with the faith that animates them is ultimately destined to fail.

The powerlessness I wrestled with (the very powerlessness that Goudzwaard’s analysis speaks to, I think) is a sense that things are fated, and that individual human actions matter little in the grand scheme of the crises our society currently faces. The opposite pole of this concept is a sense of agency, where we recognize that our deepest faith desires have created and continue to uphold the powers that be, whether that is the frenetic pace of modern technological development at the expense of humans and the environment, or the ugly face of the alt-right rearing its head in our politics. Recovering this sense of agency is where I find hope. This hope isn’t easy. Enacting it means staring into the abyss of our own desires and motivations. It is only when we do this, however, that we can begin the process of disclosure Goudzwaard calls for in Capitalism and Progress. It is to make a choice, over and over again, to walk in the ways of life. Goudzwaard shows us that we can make this choice, and that it really does matter. ◆

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the English translation of Capitalism and Progress, we invite proposals for contributions to an edited collection of essays to mark the significance of this pivotal work in Reformational thought. More information can be found at https://www.icscanada.edu/research/book-series.