Invisible Hand-in-Glove? The Uneasy Intersections of Friedrich Hayek’s Neoliberalism and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Bahá’í Economics

The theological rendering of economics in the Bahá’í Faith—particularly from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá—advocated progressive taxation, a strong welfare state, the abolition of trusts, and the redistribution of wealth. These orientations directly diverge from “neoliberal” economic theory, especially as articulated by Frederick Hayek: concerns that social justice exacerbates poverty and claims that progressive taxation is “discrimination.” Despite these seemingly antithetical orientations, there has been a slow and tentative, if not uneasy, meeting of Bahá’í and neoliberal ideals in global organizations and scholarship. Through a comparative analysis of the writings of both ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Friedrich Hayek, I first illuminate the fundamental disagreements on economy and society between Bahá’í theology and neoliberalism. Second, I cover recent scholarship on the moralization of markets and the sacralization of financial actors in order to contextualize the historical and contemporary unions of theology and economy. Third, I outline how ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s theological vision and Hayek’s neoliberal theories accrete around four mutual worldviews, which can tempt hermeneutic deemphases of the fundamental divergences in Bahá’í and neoliberal logics: (1) the duality of human nature, (2) the limits of materialist reason, (3) the apotheosis of the market and self-love, and (4) sacrificial submission to transcendent authority.