Faithful Economics: The Moral Worlds of a Neutral Science (review)

Perhaps the largest gathering ever of economists assembled to pursue the relationship between their work as economists and their profession as Christians occurred at Baylor University's 2002 conference on "Christianity and Economics: Integrating Faith and Learning in Economic Scholarship." A conventional array of concurrent sessions, using the Judeo-Christian moral tradition to frame economically related policy emphases and/or theoretical constructs (hereinafter FDI for faith-discipline integration), was complemented by seven plenary addresses. Reworked versions of these addresses comprise the chapters of Faithful Economics; an Introduction and Conclusion by the conference organizers and FE editors complete the book.

Assigning historian George Marsden, the first address/chapter reveals one conference objective—establishing the legitimacy of FDI work within the normal routines of the modern research university. Claiming no expertise in economics, Marsden generalizes his experience within history to other disciplines: the modern research university marginalizes and trivializes religion as a useful source for uncovering truth about the world and how to act within it. Working from Wolterstorff's epistemology, Marsden argues that one's foundational commitments/worldview cannot help but inform the theoretical constructs used and the policy implications proposed—a reality as true of feminists and Marxists (which the academy welcomes) as religiously grounded scholarship (which the academy shuns). A two-fold general counsel followed: (1) high-level FDI scholarship requires grounding in the intellectual dimensions of one's religious heritage (Calvinism, Roman Catholicism, Anabaptism, and so on), requiring fresh professional effort for most economists; (2) within the academy, present one's FDI-informed analysis in ways scholars from all worldviews can understand.

Interestingly, the three Christian economists writing chapters proffer little support from their experience for Marsden's characterization of the modern academy. Judith Dean (U.S. International Trade Commission) finds useful his specific guidelines for doing FDI work: let one's faith inform choice of problem for analysis and questions asked, push the analysis to discern the impacts upon real people, and test the philosophical presuppositions of mainstream economics for consistency with a Christian worldview. Applying these guidelines, the mainstream research paradigm does not compromise her faith. Indeed, using this paradigm becomes mandatory in order to speak with authority to FDI-informed problems and thereby influence policy in ways that improve the plight of the poor. Rebecca Blank (Michigan) voices more reservations about mainstream analysis, especially a too-narrow conception of humans as self-interested, utility-maximizing individuals, but grants practically the usefulness of these assumptions (and the model of competitive markets in which they find expression) for predicting policy-relevant outcomes. Unlike the mainstream's "economic man/woman" Christian faith teaches other-interested and community-oriented behavior wherein we question material accumulation and examine the moral consequences of our private and public choices, observing especially their impact upon the poor/vulnerable. Although more critical than Dean of markets and mainstream analysis, the alternatives in both regards would appear to be worse. "Christians need to find ways to live in the market but not be wholly possessed by it" (49).

Glenn Loury (Boston University) emphasizes how his Christian commitment, coming amidst his career as an economist, reveals the inadequacy of mainstream economics (and most social science) for addressing crucial dimensions of human behavior. Examining incentive structures wherein rational, self-interested actors make utility-maximizing decisions (the guts of mainstream analysis) cannot explain the sacrificial behavior and heroic struggles against overwhelming odds that he observes frequently within urban ghettos. Social scientists strip from their analysis "that which most makes a person human . . . the soul" (53). "It is crucial to grasp the implication that the behavior of freely-choosing, socially situated, spiritually endowed human beings will in some essential way be indeterminate, unpredictable, and even mysterious" (55). Following this attack on the adequacy of mainstream analysis, he reviewed arguments from his Anatomy of Racial Inequality (a project employing the tools of mainstream analysis) as illustration. Socio-economic actors practically use race in our daily routines (often in...