I'm going to try a thought-experiment here. I want to think about what an economy run on Christian principles might look like. And this is quite literally a 'thought experiment'. At the moment, I have no idea of what I intend to write in the future, but I want simply to think out loud, building on ideas step by step.That is a very good start, and I recommend that people who are interested in the topic read the whole series.
So here are some initial thoughts for a foundation:
1) Christian thinking on economics should begin with Christian and biblical principles, not with economic principles.
2) That being said, it seems to me that a good principle for a Christian thought experiment on our economic life would be: honor God and love your neighbor. (There are actually a number of principles that the bible expresses on economic life that a lot of us might not like; forbidding the giving or receiving of debt is one of these.)
3) As I think and write, I will try to separate 'What works' from 'What should be'. I will recognize that 'What should be' doesn't always work well. In separating the two principles, I intend to avoid what seems to me to be a usual problem in Christian economic thinking: 'That operational method doesn't work, therefore it is unjust'.
If one is really going to discuss such things properly, however, blog comments are rather inadequate. It is the kind of thing worth discussing in the Christianity and society forum.
And you can see my take on it at Notes from underground: The Invisible Hand.
2 comments:
Never heard of that forum, but I've signed up. I've tried discussing this in another very large general Christian forum and gave up due to apparent lack of interest. (In a forum with over 10,000 members, no one seemed particularly interested so I resorted to my blog.)
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