An Introduction to Christian Economics

Gary North

The free market is not autonomous. It rests on men's faith in economic cause and effect, and especially their faith in its moral legitimacy. The Bible provides the moral foundation of free market voluntarism. The moral issue is personal responsibility. The Bible places this squarely on the shoulders of the individual decision-maker.

This book stands as a refutation of what is known as the Social Gospel. The Social Gospel, developed in the late 19th century, calls for government intervention into the economy in the name of biblical ethics. The Social Gospel is contrary to biblical ethics. (For a free book on the history of the Social Gospel, click here.)

I began my series, An Economic Commentary on the Bible, at almost the exact time that An Introduction to Christian Economics appeared in print: the spring of 1973. I finished the exegetical work in late 2010. It is being typeset. This 31-volume project should be in print in late 2012. There are about 700 chapters. My goal is to produce at least 1400 videos: 3-minute summaries plus 25-minute presentations, one per chapter. Preliminary PDF editions of this series are available here: http://www.garynorth.com/public/department57.cfm.

I will begin my treatise on Christian economics in 2012. I have planned this since 1973. I plan to write a multi-volume version comparable to Ludwig von Mises' Human Action, a 450-page version comparable to Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics, and a 200-page version, comparable to Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson. I will also do about 500 3-minute videos, plus an equal number of 25-minute presentations.

This book is a compilation of articles that were published in various journals, but most appeared in The Freeman. The book introduces the reader to fundamental issues of economics. It shows how the free market offers institutional solutions to scarcity.

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