Editor’s Introduction: A Theological Reflection on the Economics of Religion

In this issue of Faith & Economics we have a series of articles and reviews that highlight work being done in the economics of religion. A lot of writing about economics and Christianity brings theological and biblical insights to economic questions. In contrast, the economics of religion uses standard economic analyses to help us better understand religious behavior. Our lead article examines demographic religious differences in health outcomes during the Great Recession and our second article uses choice architecture to examine different bases for tithing behavior. The issue also includes an examination of economic lessons that can be taught using biblical texts and a review of a recent edited volume on the economics of religion.

This issue offers a good reason to note a kind of tension that can sometimes exist in the economic study of religion. While economists are accustomed to examining human behavior in economic terms, we are not always as comfortable talking about God’s work using economic language. So, for example, I have run into some resistance among fellow Christians when I discuss the thesis of Iannaccone’s famous (1992) article, in which he argues that more conservative (restrictive) religious groups might have an advantage in providing religious goods because of a reduction of free riders. If this thesis holds, and we can use scientific principles to describe the success of a faithful community, one might ask: Does this rule out the work of the Holy Spirit in drawing together and sustaining a church? What role does faithfulness to scripture play in that story? Or, alternatively, consider the recent work by Becker, Rubin and Woessmann (2024) that synthesizes a body of empirical work investigating the relationship between religious beliefs and economic growth. They find a number of channels through which religious beliefs might alter behaviors in ways that could encourage or discourage long-run growth. Even if it turns out that Christian beliefs result in faster growth, or slower growth, it is hard to know whether Christians should cheer or be ambivalent about such a finding. Few would ever offer an economic growth rate as evidence of the truth of a culture’s religious tradition; but some Christians might comfortably make an argument that faithful Christianity should result in more or less economic prosperity, depending on whether they think of prosperity as a blessing from God, a temptation to sin, or a sign of a lack of faithfulness.

I have many intuitions about how we should navigate these tensions, but I am not well-versed enough to offer any definitive answers to the questions these literatures raise. However, it is important, I think, that Christian economists do not buy into any kind of strict separation between, on the one hand, the economic phenomena that we can describe with our tools, and, on the other hand, God’s work in the world. God works through people and communities in ways that might easily be described using social scientific tools. The theological point that we need to hold on to when we use scientific methods to talk about religious belief is that God’s work in creating and sustaining creation, and God’s work in the Church, need not be miraculous, but it is also not always easily comprehensible. That is, we Christians need to avoid two extremes. To say that human behavior follows normal economic principles does not rule out the possibility that that same behavior is inspired or guided by the Holy Spirit. We should not limit God’s action in the world to the clearly miraculous – that which cannot be explained through normal scientific explanation. Nor should we ever rule out the possibility that the spirit is moving in ways that we cannot easily anticipate in our models.

Glenn Butner’s recent (2024) book tries to grapple with some related questions, working out an account of divine and human agency in economic life, and drawing on the Reformed doctrine of common grace to understand the possibility of God’s work in market activity. Some of these questions have also been explored by scholars like Oslington, particularly in his (and others’) historical work on Adam Smith (Ballor & van der Kooi, 2024; Oslington, 2011, 2018) and questions of providence.

Faith & Economics has always sought excellent scholarship in the economics of religion, both because this work is of interest to members, but also because religious scholars might have the background knowledge and experience necessary to do really excellent work in this area. Hopefully that tradition will continue well beyond this issue.

References

Ballor, J.J and van der Kooi, C. (Eds). (2024). Theology, Morality and Adam Smith (1st edition). London: Routledge.

Becker, S.O., Rubin, J. and Woessmann, L. (2024). Religion and Growth. Journal of Economic Literature 62 (3), 1094–1142. https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.20231666

Butner, D.G. (2024). Work Out Your Salvation: A Theology of Markets and Moral Formation. Minneapolis, MI: Fortress Press.

Iannaccone, L.R. (1992). Sacrifice and Stigma: Reducing Free-riding in Cults, Communes, and Other Collectives. Journal of Political Economy 100 (2), 271–291.

Oslington, P. (Ed.). (2011). Adam Smith as Theologian (1st edition). London: Routledge.

—————-. (Ed.). (2018). Political Economy as Natural Theology: Smith, Malthus and their Followers. London: Routledge. http://www.gbv.de/dms/zbw/887519776.pdf