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Reviews the book "Offering Smoke: The Sacred Pipe and Native American Religion," by Jordan Paper.

The focus of this book is the nature and proper constitution of the economic order in the United States. The subject is approached in ten essays divided among three perspectives, all focusing on the nature and relationship of Christianity and capitalism. Two historical essays, by John Pawlikowski and David Krueger, offer valuable grounding in (respectively) Catholic and Protestant approaches to ethical analysis of economic issues. Contemporary Christian Ethics is represented in essays by Franklin Gamwell, Robert Benne, Cornel West, Douglas Sturm, and Widick Schroeder, while perspectives from economics, social theory, and anthropology are provided in essays by Daniel Finn, Bruce Grelle, and Kay Warren. In many ways the key piece in this anthology is Gamwell's paper, which poses the broad question of the interrelation between liberal political thought, religious ethics, and the economic order and argues that an ongoing dispute within liberalism itself is a major obstacle to consensus on the proper shape of the economic sphere. With the reawakened interest in application of religious ethical analysis to defining social justice in the economy, however, all the component essays of this volume are useful, and varied, sources of thoughtful reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]