Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Economics

March 18, 2020

Why the economy needs a theology of the body

This article first appeared on March 17, 2020, in Public Discourse, the journal of the Witherspoon Institute, and was republished with permission. The COVID-19 pandemic is catalyzing trends in the economy that have been incubating for some time. Continue Reading...
March 12, 2020

Why culture matters for the economy

This article first appeared on February 24, 2020, in Law & Liberty, a project of Liberty Fund, Inc., and was republished with permission.   In many peoples’ minds, economics and economists remain locked in a world of homo economicus—the ultimate pleasure-calculator who seeks only to maximize personal satisfaction from the consumption of goods and services and whose occasional displays of seemingly altruistic behavior really only function as a means of self-satisfaction. Continue Reading...
February 21, 2020

Three books to help you think like an economist

Everyone knows that there is a difference between knowing about something and knowing how to do something. The first is a superficial way of knowing, not a bad way to begin, but it is no substitute for the mastery which comes by integrating knowledge into experience. Continue Reading...
February 20, 2020

An interview about Michael Novak and his vision of the market economy

February 2020 marks the third anniversary of the death of the American Catholic intellectual and the 1994 winner of the Templeton Prize in Religion, Michael Novak. Perhaps most famous for his 1982 book, “The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism,” Novak’s ideas were immensely influential for several decades in American public life, numerous faith communities and the world of political economy. Continue Reading...
February 14, 2020

Argentina is spiraling into economic chaos

It’s hardly news to say that Argentina is in deep economic trouble. With only a few exceptions, that has been a given for decades. But recent developments underscore just how much it is the responsibility of Argentine populist politicians and, to be blunt, those who persist in voting for them. Continue Reading...
February 05, 2020

Generosity through trade: The power of giving and receiving

In cultivating a Christian ethic of economic generosity, we tend to focus heavily on traditional acts of charity—donating our dollars, volunteering our time, and so on. Likewise, in heeding Jesus’ call in Matthew 25 to serve the “least of these,” we often think through the lens of one-way material transfers. Continue Reading...