Thursday, July 08, 2010

God Is Not Interested in Economics

Jordan J. Ballor, in a post at the Acton Institute Power Blog titled Reflections on Christianity and Economic Research, points to an essay penned by Judith M. Dean.  Dean is currently employed as an international economist, working for the Office of Economics, Research Division, U.S. International Trade Commission, and the essay Ballor points to is titled Being a Good Physician - Reflections on Christianity and Economic Research.  The essay is posted at the Intervarsity.org Following Christ website.

Upon reading Dean’s essay, Ballor offers these closing words.

Note here the vigorous sense of Christian advocacy in the public square, and how it is to be informed by solid economic, social, and historical research. Note too that the advocacy described is generally not that which ought to be pursued by the institutional church, but by Christians organizing themselves organically in civil society.

As a theologian often writing on economic and public policy matters, I heartily endorse Dean’s call for more sustained, careful, and intentional engagement of Christian economists on these matters.

I’ve read through Dean’s essay a number of times, today, and while I found her thoughts on the subject of Christians and economics interesting, if considered from a dogmatic Christianity viewpoint, it fails to inspire me, as an individual of faith, to consider her admonitions for Christian economists to seriously be considered.

In a sidebar quote from within the essay, which appears at the top of the page, left, readers will view this question.

What differences should we see in work done by Christian economists vs. those who do not profess the Christian faith?

The answer is a definitive, and emphatic, NONE.  There should be no difference.  Economics is neutral, and belongs to each and every individual, though this fact is basically unknown today because economics has been forcefully wrested from its praxeological reality by the State and cloaked in polylogical hyperbole, resulting in the current economic mess with which the world is contending.  Appeals to Heaven do not make this statement any less true, but they do make this post ring true.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/08 at 05:41 PM
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