Preface
Updated: 2/22/20
I have counsel and sound wisdom; I have insight; I have strength. By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just; by me princes rule, and nobles, all who govern justly. I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver. I walk in the way of righteousness, in the paths of justice, granting an inheritance to those who love me, and filling their treasuries (Proverbs 8:14–21).
Proverbs 8 is the voice of wisdom. We read: “For whoever finds me, finds life, and he will find the favor of the Lord. But he who fails, harms his own life; all who hate me love death” (vv. 35–36). So, wisdom is worth pursuing. You must now begin to estimate this worth.
How committed are you to gaining biblical wisdom in economics? To answer this honestly, you must first answer these three questions. These are the three questions you should ask yourself before embarking on any major project.
What do I want to accomplish?
How soon do I want to accomplish it?
What am I willing to pay?
This is how Jesus put it. “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’” (Luke 14:28–30). In short, count the cost. But also count the potential benefits.
One of the fundamental principles of all systems of economic theory is this: “You can’t get something for nothing.” Christianity teaches that God offers saving grace to some people without cost to them. But this grace is based on the high price that Jesus Christ paid at Calvary. Furthermore, God’s grace has purposes: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8–10).
Christian economics does not teach the labor theory of value. Economic value does not come from work. It comes from the imputation of God and then (maybe) consumers. Absorbing information is insufficient to please God. You must convert this information into useful service. This process of service should already have begun in your life. James wrote: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing” (James 1:22–25).
You may think that God has called you to be a scholar. He has called very few people to this form of service through the ages. There are salaried scholars in colleges and universities today, but this was not a widespread phenomenon until after World War II (1941–45). If you decide to be a Christian scholar who goes to the Bible in search of first principles and also specific applications, you will find it difficult to be employed as a professor. Your presence on the faculty will embarrass the other faculty members. Also, you will be required by the department to assign textbooks and monographs that are structured in terms of humanism’s principles of interpretation. So, your scholarship will have to be mostly outside the classroom unless you are granted a degree of independence that is rare. Do not count on such independence. Scholarship will have to become your calling, which I define as follows: “The most important thing you can do with your life in which you would be most difficult to replace.”
There is no career advantage, academic or otherwise, associated with affirming Christian economics as a separate discipline. There are many career disadvantages. Why should this be the case? Because Ph.D.-holding economists have been screened by their formal academic training and then by subsequent peer-reviewed work. This system of screening is methodologically atheistic. The entire modern university curriculum is structured in terms of this presupposition: “The God of the Bible and His revelation in the Bible are irrelevant to academic discourse or public debate.” By promoting Christian economics, you will be saying implicitly that your peers have been unfaithful to God to the extent that they have been faithful to the operating presuppositions of academic economic theory and academia in general. They will understand this. They will resent the implication. They will not applaud your efforts. They will ignore your efforts if they can. If they cannot safely ignore your work because you become prominent, they will criticize it. Do not expect them to read what you have written. Do not expect them to be honest in analyzing your work even if they have read smatterings of it.
Do not let this bother you. Keep working. Keep publishing. The best defense is a good offense. Stick to your knitting.
Beginning in 1974, I began to learn the skills of direct-response copywriting in order to promote my newly launched newsletter, Remnant Review. This self-education program was basic to the success of my growing publishing business. I soon learned that it was also basic to my calling as a scholar. Let me explain.
1. The Two Questions
A copywriter soon learns that readers are initially skeptical about his claims. They ask themselves two crucial questions. The first is, “So what?” The second is, “Who says?” Over the years, I have learned that this mental response to advertising is not limited to advertising. Scholars ask the same two questions when they read academic materials. This is why there are footnotes. Footnotes help the author to answer the second question: “Who says?” But the first one— “So what?”—is by far the most difficult question to answer. Readers of materials promoting a new interpretation of familiar material in their field are prone to respond negatively based on this widespread criticism: “Not developed here.” If you are writing from outside an academic guild, expect organized resistance if you begin to gain followers inside any the guild. The classic book on this resistance by academic guilds is Thomas Kuhn’s monograph, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). You would be wise to read it early in your academic career.
2. Your Audience
A copywriter learns early in his career to ask this question: “Who is my audience?” Then he asks this: “How can I get my message to members of this audience?” Very few scholars ask these two questions. They do not see themselves as salesmen. But they are salesmen. Whoever is in any way involved in the task of persuasion is a salesman. Such a person is trying to change people’s minds and then change their behavior. People resist both. It is usually costly for a person to make a significant change. There is a rule: “You can’t change just one thing.” When you seek to persuade someone of a new idea, you are asking that person to change far more than just one idea in his life. He cannot foresee the consequences of such a change. He may be aware of the famous “law of unintended consequences.” Life is filled with unintended consequences.
Here is a huge problem that I have with this four-volume book: targeting my audience. I knew I would have this problem in 1963. First, pastors are not interested in economic theory. Second, economists are not interested in Christian theology. I decided to target intelligent laymen. This strategy has worked. But there is an inherent problem with materials published on the Web. First, I do not know who you are. Second, I do not know where you are. Third, and most important, I do not know when you are. Yet I tried to write this volume in such a way that it will retain your interest sufficiently so that you will finish reading it. It will take you many hours to do this.
Because of the World Wide Web, I have no control over who will come across this book. Because of the smartphone, introduced by Apple in 2007, digital books can be read easily without a large desktop computer. The number of people who can access a book in remote villages is increasing. Free translation software will make this book available to people who cannot speak English. This software has already begun to overcome the cultural barrier created by God’s curse at the tower of Babel (Genesis 11).
There is another aspect of writing that the Web has made possible. Books do not go out of print. They stay online in digital form. It is almost cost-free to store digital books online. Readers can access them at any time from any place that has an Internet connection. Always before, books disappeared after publishers ceased making money from sales. This is why so few books survived. This is no longer a problem. This means that a book can be read a century or more after its publication.
3. Timely vs. Timeless
A book must be of interest to someone. The author understands his era, his geography, and his audience because he is a contemporary. But if he wants his book to retain influence long term, he must write for an audience that he does not understand well. To gain a large audience, a book must deal with contemporary issues. But the more contemporary it is, the sooner it ceases to be relevant. Conversely, the more timeless a book is, the less likely that it will appeal to a contemporary audience. This is the perpetual marketing problem of timeliness vs. timelessness.
The Bible and the Koran are permanent best-sellers. They are timeless. Generation after generation, readers find ways of applying these books’ message to current conditions all over the world. Books that openly apply permanent principles to contemporary issues have a far better likelihood of retaining influence if the issues they deal with are also permanent. Such issues as marriage, disciplining children, getting a good job, making money, solving personal problems, and getting a better education inexpensively continue to sell.
In this book, I tie the text to Bible passages. I do my best to use examples from the Bible rather than recent events. While Wikipedia will keep information on events available permanently, which is itself a revolution in education, I prefer to help people learn by biblical examples. These examples have greater persuasive power. This is another reason why I wrote 31 volumes of economic commentaries on the Bible, 1973–2012.
4. Attracting Your Audience
If you are persuaded by what I have written, you now have a large task. First, you must master my basic concepts and arguments. They must come to mind almost effortlessly to you. Second, you must learn how to teach this material to those teachers or would-be teachers who come under your influence. Third, you must find ways of extending my analysis to popular topics of your time and place. Fourth, you must extend my analysis theoretically. You must find new ways of thinking about the principles I present here, yet without violating biblical principles. Fifth, you must find new ways of getting out the message. You must target an audience. Then you must reach members of that audience. You must become familiar with the appropriate marketing technologies.
Do not seek to persuade the masses. That is a futile task for a scholar. Instead, seek to make available materials that will help dedicated people to achieve their goals. A classic essay on this strategy was written by Albert J. Nock in 1937: “Isaiah’s Job.” There are reprints of it on the Web. I recommend that you read it more than once. I hope it will immunize you against the dream of persuading the masses. Persuade those few who are willing to consider what you have to say. Speak to the remnant, not the masses. Use what you learn here to extend this message to the remnant.
Not everyone who begins reading this book will finish it. Of those who finish, a few will read it again in order to gain mastery. Of those few who attain mastery, a few will become teachers of teachers. Of those who do become teachers of teachers, a few will become proficient. Of those few who become proficient, a few will become virtuosos. Maybe you will be among this small group in 20 or 30 years.
Mastery of this book must be a calling. It was a calling for me to write it. Do not pursue this self-improvement program for the sake of fame. There are very few people who ever attain fame. Be content with attaining mastery. Then wait for God’s call to you to demonstrate your virtuosity. Never forget: virtuosity begins with virtue. It requires long, hard work, usually performed free of charge. This is self-sacrificing service.
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The full manuscript is posted here: https://www.garynorth.com/public/department196.cfm