If you’re trying to make sense of the moral confusion surrounding wealth, power, and politics in America right now, The Almightier by Paul Vigna is essential reading. Vigna traces the origins of money to ancient Mesopotamian temples, not barter systems, and shows how money began not as a neutral tool, but as a moral force embedded in religion. Debts were sins. Interest was spiritual. The economy was inseparable from ethics.

Today, we’ve replaced priests with hedge fund managers. Wealth confers moral credibility, and poverty is framed as personal failure. In an election cycle dominated by dark money, corporate influence, and growing inequality, Vigna’s thesis is hard to ignore: Money didn’t buy politics—it replaced religion as our highest authority. The result is a system that celebrates greed, devalues public good, and treats economic injustice as unavoidable.

Vigna reveals how financial systems became our new theology. It challenges us to reconsider how we define virtue, accountability, and collective responsibility in a world where the market decides who matters.

This is a timely, unsettling, and deeply researched book that forces us to ask:
Who gets to write the rules when money is treated as sacred?

Also, the irony of a book critiquing the cult of money being released on a subsidiary of Amazon publishing company is not lost on me… The billionaires are still winning.

Since it would be dumb for me to talk about the book, I'll just say I love the narrator. He really captures the essence of the book and also makes it his own. At times I honestly felt like I was listening to somebody else's book, and I mean that in a good way. I'm very happy that Rob did the narration.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Brilliance Publishing for the advanced copy of the audiobook.

This book was so interesting and right up my alley! I am deeply fascinated by theology and also finance. The Almightier is packed with the history of money with emphasis on greed’s long time and historical impact on society - with an emphasis on Christianity’s impact on Western culture surrounding money.

All the major religions have holy writings that condemn greed, and yet, here we are with religious greed ruling a lot of the world’s cultures. It’s a fascinating look at the apologetics that allow people to let their greed run wild.

As an accoutant, the section of this book on double entry accounting being part of Renaissance Catholicism as a way to express moral piety was very interesting to me.

The first half of the book focuses a lot on Catholicism and then the second part of the book moves on to address the culture of money in the ever-expanding wider Protestant and non-Catholic Christian culture. I appreciated Vigna addressing slavery in the American South, which was justified by Christian apologetics, specific Bible verses, and the Protestant work ethic/economic prosperity. The book wrapped up with an analysis of capitalism painted as a religion in Ayn Rand’s writings.

The author, Paul Vigna, is a long time journalist focusing on money and currency. This is a book that is packed with history, theology, and makes for great dinner conversation. I highly recommend it to anyone with interest in money’s role in Christianity.