"Christian" Economics (Essay‪)‬

This article assesses the relevance of the Christian faith for economics. It argues that faith in the Trinity provides the basic pattern for the market system--a system that puts radically different and independent agents into a positive and fruitful relationship. As a result of being patterned throughout his life on the trinitarian model, the Christian economic agent is more capable of developing exchanges, of allocating resources efficiently, and thereby fostering growth than the solipsistic homo economicus of conventional theory. The Christian message brings to humanity the anthropological characteristics that are required to overcome the game-theoretic deficiencies that prevent economic agents from fully developing public goods, which the market system needs to function. It is, of course, obvious that the market system is an imperfect, human reflection of the trinitarian pattern and must be perfected through history. Introduction