Abstract
A project to reconstruct economics on Christian foundations
was begun in the 1970s by scholars connected with Calvin College (now
Calvin University), Michigan, the Institute of Christian Studies in Toronto,
and the Free University of Amsterdam. Inspired by Abraham Kuyper’s
early 20th century renewal of Calvinism, they criticized neoclassical economics, traced its problems to a faulty anthropology, and began to build
a new economics based on true assumptions about human beings and the
world. Such an economics, they argued, would have superior explanatory
power to neoclassical economics and would be able to deal with pressing
problems in a way that existing economic theory could not. Their work stimulated a widespread revival of Christian approaches to economics
among evangelicals. I argue that this project:
(a) Finds little support in Kuyper’s theology. It misreads sphere sovereignty, over-emphasizes a distorted version of his theological antithesis,
and neglects common grace.
(b) Finds even less support in Calvin’s thought.
(c) Has produced little in the way of useful economics, and this failure can
be traced to underlying theological problems.
(d) Is best understood as a flawed sectarian response to the breakup of
Christian culture in the West from the 1960s (especially in US Christian
colleges), the crisis of economics in the 1970s, and the rise in social concern in the churches.
(e) The rise of Christian economics has some similarities with the rise of a
distinctive Islamic economics among marginalized religious communities.
This episode is an interesting case study of relationships between theology
and economics, and of connections between scholarship and wider cultural forces.
was begun in the 1970s by scholars connected with Calvin College (now
Calvin University), Michigan, the Institute of Christian Studies in Toronto,
and the Free University of Amsterdam. Inspired by Abraham Kuyper’s
early 20th century renewal of Calvinism, they criticized neoclassical economics, traced its problems to a faulty anthropology, and began to build
a new economics based on true assumptions about human beings and the
world. Such an economics, they argued, would have superior explanatory
power to neoclassical economics and would be able to deal with pressing
problems in a way that existing economic theory could not. Their work stimulated a widespread revival of Christian approaches to economics
among evangelicals. I argue that this project:
(a) Finds little support in Kuyper’s theology. It misreads sphere sovereignty, over-emphasizes a distorted version of his theological antithesis,
and neglects common grace.
(b) Finds even less support in Calvin’s thought.
(c) Has produced little in the way of useful economics, and this failure can
be traced to underlying theological problems.
(d) Is best understood as a flawed sectarian response to the breakup of
Christian culture in the West from the 1960s (especially in US Christian
colleges), the crisis of economics in the 1970s, and the rise in social concern in the churches.
(e) The rise of Christian economics has some similarities with the rise of a
distinctive Islamic economics among marginalized religious communities.
This episode is an interesting case study of relationships between theology
and economics, and of connections between scholarship and wider cultural forces.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 7-36 |
| Number of pages | 30 |
| Journal | Faith and Economics |
| Volume | 75 |
| Issue number | Spring |
| Publication status | Published - 2020 |