Abstract

Current philosophical and theological trends tend to privilege a normative vision of abundance over that of scarcity. Consequently, the role the concept of scarcity once played in political reflection is undermined. Contra these trends, I shall make an appraisal for the necessity of re-thinking scarcity and such rethinking, if harnessed properly, will help us to direct theological and political reflection towards a concern for limitation. To this end, drawing on Jean-Paul Sartre and Sergei Bulgakov, this paper seeks to inquire as to what it might mean to speak of a milieu of scarcity while considering the scope available to express this within moral-philosophical discourse.