I: Ancient economics and beyond -- The epic of Gilgamesh: on effectiveness, immortality, and the economics of friendship -- The Old Testament: earthliness and goodness -- Ancient Greece -- Christianity: spirituality in the material world -- Descartes the mechanic -- Bernard Mandeville's beehive of vice -- Adam Smith, blacksmith of economics -- II: Blasphemous thoughts -- Need for greed: the history of want -- Progress, new Adam, and Sabbath economics -- The axis of good and evil and the Bibles of economics -- The history of the invisible hand of the market and homo economicus -- The history of animal spirits: the dream never sleeps -- Metamathematics -- Masters of truth: science, myths, and faith -- Conclusion: where the wild things are.