By: Matt Emma
For generations, Americans have been taught to keep their financial lives and their spiritual lives in separate, airtight boxes. Money belongs to the practical world, religion to the private interior one. But according to attorney and author Sheldon Zeiger, that separation may be artificial, and it’s likely difficult to fully maintain. He suggests that it’s also one of the reasons so many people feel morally conflicted about their financial decisions.
Zeiger, who has spent decades immersed in both the legal and financial worlds, is emerging as an unexpected voice in a national conversation about “moral capitalism.” His latest book, The Eye Inside, approaches personal finance through the lens of spirituality, drawing on moral philosophy, psychology, and religious tradition. In a recent conversation with his media team, he laid out the argument at the heart of his work: Money and morality are often intertwined, and they are not two separate stories, but rather aspects of the same narrative told from different angles.
“People think they can split themselves into compartments,” Zeiger says. “But you can’t. Your financial self and your spiritual self are two sides of the same person. You’d like to separate them, but human beings just don’t seem to work that way.”
Zeiger grounds this claim not in sentiment but in history. The foundations of modern economics were built by moral philosophers, not bankers or technocrats. Adam Smith and David Hume, two pillars of the Scottish Enlightenment, believed economic behavior could not be fully understood without examining empathy, conscience, and human psychology. Smith’s famous Theory of Moral Sentiments preceded The Wealth of Nations, offering a framework that positioned markets within a larger ethical ecosystem.
Somewhere along the line, Zeiger argues, that integrated worldview fractured. Money became clinical, drained of moral context. Religion retreated into private life. And Americans were encouraged to live like two separate characters: one who prayed or reflected, and another who invested, borrowed, spent, and saved.
“That split could be why so many people feel shame about money,” Zeiger says. “It’s why they feel spiritually alienated from their own financial decisions. They think they’re violating something sacred, but the real problem is that the culture has led them to believe these two parts weren’t supposed to touch.”
Today, as millions of people navigate student loan burdens, rising interest rates, ethical investing trends, and ongoing debates about inequality, the search for values-based financial frameworks is particularly urgent. A growing number of Americans want their money choices to align with their beliefs, but may not always have the tools to bridge the gap.
Zeiger thinks the solution may begin with honesty about human nature. To explain his approach, he uses an idea from perennial philosophy: non-dual awareness, the understanding that internal divisions are often illusions. Just as the persona and the shadow in psychology are two expressions of the same self, he says, so too are the spiritual self and the financial self.
“You can’t cut a person in half,” he says. “The part of you that gives to charity and the part of you that invests for retirement, they’re both you. They come from the same values, the same fears, the same hopes.”
Zeiger’s own journey reflects that unity. Raised in traditional finance thinking, he attended a conservative business school during the Reagan era, and later realized that much of what he had been taught was influenced by supply-side ideology and a belief in economic rationalism that lacked consideration for moral factors. Over time, he became disillusioned with the idea that markets operate independently from human ethics.
“The moment you pretend money has nothing to do with morality is when you stop questioning who benefits and who suffers,” he says. “That’s how inequality can grow.”
He points to the country’s dramatic wealth gap to illustrate the consequences. Roughly 1,000 billionaire households now hold more combined net worth than 60 million households at the bottom half of the population. Meanwhile, debates over food assistance, healthcare cuts, and student loan forgiveness unfold in a nation whose total net worth exceeds $135 trillion.
“For children to go hungry in a country that is wealthy is a moral concern, not just a financial one,” Zeiger says.
His willingness to frame economic issues as spiritual ones has gained attention and controversy. As social media clips of his commentary circulate and his press presence expands, Zeiger anticipates more public conversation about the philosophical underpinnings of American capitalism, including his critique of Ayn Rand, libertarian individualism, and the belief that self-interest alone can produce a just society.
But for now, his focus remains on helping ordinary people reconnect their internal worlds to their financial lives, not through guilt or dogma, but through reflection.
“People are desperate for meaning around money,” he says. “They want guidance that speaks to who they really are, not who the market says they should be. The truth is simple: your wallet and your soul have always been speaking to each other. It’s time we stopped pretending otherwise.”
Disclaimer: This article is intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial or investment advice. Readers are encouraged to consult with a professional financial advisor before making any financial decisions.
