Keynes and Christian socialism: Religion and the economic problem

Keynes rejected religion in his youth but embraced it later in his life. This essay addresses Keynes’ peculiar definition of religion, his description of his “religion,” and the sources of his religion. Keynes characterised religion as not only a personal experience of communion, but also as the pursuit of a better world for all people, although he showed some ambivalence about how this better world might come about, ultimately adopting a position similar to that of the nineteenth-century Christian Socialist Movement, to which he was connected through the Cambridge Apostles.