A theological economics

Abstract

Over the past century explicit discussion of theology has all but disappeared from economic discourse, while economics has been largely ignored by theologians. This paper argues that this separation is neither desirable nor possible, and calls for a theological economics. The argument is in two parts-a primary argument for the necessity and primacy of theology coming from the nature of orthodox Christian theology, and a secondary argument based on points of contact between economics and theology. Acceptance of the argument does not lead to a separatist "Christian" economics, but rather to discussion of theology implicit in contemporary economics and better relations between the two disciplines. Some existing work along these lines is briefly surveyed.

The AO chronicle: earth@omega or sustainability@alpha?

“…purchasing a new automobile. Oslington (2000) argues convincingly that such characteristics can be successfully integrated into economic theory and practice. That many people over countless generations have sacrificed their own lives to save those of others ± including, on occasion, that of a stranger ± is sufficient to indicate people do not always act out of self-interest and hence that any sweeping economic construct ignoring the reality of such motivations is, at best, incomplete.…”

A Theology of Economic Reform

“…T he time may be right for a renaissance in theological economics, lows for two interpretations of the word theology, one as "revealed truth" economic research is perhaps limited only by scholarly standards and imagination, but for those who perceive theology as the former, greater theology can be applied in economics, as well as the limits of theology in economic analysis and policymaking. Both Oslington (2000) and Tatum (2017) make cases for a theological economics, but neither examine the bounds theology itself may place on such scholarship. Economics has *The author is grateful to Becky Todd and Emily Wheeler for research assistance, as well as to participants of the UK Association of Christian Economists 2016 study group meeting for valuable comments.…”

Accounting and theology, an introduction

“…The objective of this special issue was therefore to explore whether a theological take on accounting was possible and if so, to begin to investigate the insights that might be gained from a Judeo-Christian reading of accounting in particular (see Oslington, 2000). In the words of Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (2000), we wanted, "to initiate a dialogue between immediacy and eternity.…”

“…Not much more than a decade ago, such a dialogue would probably have been untenable due to the over-bearing deference given to the voice of secular materialism within accounting scholarship and academia in general (Oslington, 2000;Calkins, 2000). However, there is now a growing awareness that the modern and postmodern The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at…”

“…The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/0951-3574.htm AAAJ 17,3 critiques of theology, when applied reflexively back on themselves, show the claims of science and postmodernism to be no less spurious or arbitrary than those of religious belief systems (Oslington, 2000). There is, for reasons that we do not have the time to explore here, the slightest hint of a theological (re)turn within contemporary scholarship (see for example, Brown, 1990 andMarsden, 1997).…”