Updated, 3/10/20
Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all day long. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for your commandments are always with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for I meditate on your covenant decrees (Psalm 119:97–99).I have a tremendous advantage over all previous economists. I have applied the specifics of Biblical law to the categories of economic theory. It took me from 1973 until 2012 to write my 31 volumes of economic commentaries on the Bible. That investment has finally paid off in the four volumes of this set. There was no way of knowing when I began investigating Christian economics in 1960 that I would ever reach this stage. I was not sure until 1963 that I should attempt to write a Christian reconstruction of economic theory. I did not know that it would take me this long. I did not know that it would take me this many hours: well over 30,000.
There are 31 chapters in Part 3. This is comparable to a college-level textbook in economics. But it is a lot shorter. This is not a textbook. This section has to do with theory. Unlike a textbook, it will be serviceable several decades after its publication. I would like to think that it will be serviceable several centuries after its publication. While there are references in some chapters to specific events and policies in a particular era, these are only examples. They are not meant to convey working knowledge of the details of these events and policies.
Chapter 1, “Trinitarian Ownership,” makes it clear that this treatise represents a fundamental break from all previous economic theory. I begin with the New Testament’s doctrine of God, not with economic scarcity. This makes it clear that my approach to the study of economics is theocentric. More specifically, it is explicitly Trinitarian. By means of Trinitarian theology, I explain the problem of the one and the many as it applies to economic theory. I explain specifically why God’s imputation of economic value is both subjective and objective. This solves the theoretical problem that bedevils modern economics and modern social theory in general, namely, the philosophically irreconcilable dualism between nominalism and realism. Nominalism is exclusively individualistic. It asserts that meaning and value come only from individual imputation. Realism, in contrast, asserts the existence of a fundamental reality that exists independently of human evaluation. In economic theory, nominalism undergirds all subjectivism, meaning all methodological individualism. Realism undergirded the classical economists’ conflicting concepts of the labor theory of value and the cost-of-production theory of value, both equally erroneous. By means of the doctrine of the Trinity, the Christian economists can affirm both individual imputation and the underlying reality and meaningfulness of the world around us, including economic value. God’s Trinitarian imputation is both subjective and objective. So is all economic theory. Humanistic economists do not explain how subjectivism and objectivism can be reconciled. This is not just a problem for economists. It is a universal problem of humanistic thought.
In Chapters 2 and 3, I discuss the question of the distribution of wealth. God is the source of all benefits, including wealth, as James affirmed. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. It comes down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17a). [North, Epistles, ch. 17] This is the origin of private property. Any policy of a civil government to redistribute property in order to achieve greater economic equality is an assault on God’s original distribution of wealth. This assault includes all subsequent redistribution that has been based on voluntary exchange, inheritance, or gifts. Such a government policy is based on the concept that political man is the true God. He is therefore wiser than the Bible’s God. He is holier than the Bible’s God. His word is the true word of God.
Chapter by chapter in Part 3, I covered the fundamental concepts of economic theory as set forth in modern textbooks. I reinterpreted them in terms of biblical revelation. This is not to say that I am arguing that all of the conclusions of modern free-market economic theory are incorrect. Rather, I am arguing that modern economists cannot consistently defend their conclusions by implicitly and silently assuming the accuracy of Kantian philosophical categories, whether the appeal is direct or indirect. The combination of Kantian dualism and Darwinian evolutionism undermines the philosophical foundations of modern free-market economic theory. In Part 3, I offered a series of blueprints for rebuilding economic theory’s edifice. Humanistic economists have offered accurate insights into the market process, but they are unable to explain why this process exists. They are unable to defend their conclusions in terms of a moral system because they insist that all economic theory must be value-free. My response is this: “There is no such thing as a value-free lunch.”
The theme that I came back to again and again in this section is this: ownership is always associated with responsibility. The free market social order is the inevitable outcome of widespread obedience to biblical law. More than any other system of ownership, it establishes a link between ownership and responsibility. The market process imposes economic sanctions on property owners. These sanctions may be positive or negative, but they are inescapable. Owners are self-interested decision-makers who allocate their property in order to obtain positive sanctions and avoid negative sanctions. Because owners are either winners or losers in the competition for consumers’ money, they are the most interested parties in making sure that they do not waste valuable resources in their pursuit of profit. They have the best information on local market conditions.
The free market’s system of profit and loss reflects life, which culminates in the final judgment. The New Testament in Matthew 25 makes this correlation between the free-market’s sanctions and final sanctions. The section on the final judgment is preceded by the parable of the stewards. Jesus presented these descriptions as a unit. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. A word to the wise is sufficient.
By introducing each of the chapters by at least one biblical passage, and then offering exegesis of each passage before offering an interpretation of the authority of each passage for establishing and explaining some economic process, I have made it clear that the Bible is authoritative in economic theory. I understand that people find it difficult to follow long chains of reasoning. I also know that if someone memorizes a Bible passage, he is likely to be influenced by the exegesis of that passage. In this way, he may recall some of my economic analysis when he thinks about the problem raised in each chapter. Let me be specific. If you understand the meaning of the passage because of my exegesis, you will be far more likely to remember the passage’s application to a specific problem of economic analysis.
I hope that Part 3 will enable you to become an effective teacher of economics. If you have read volume 2, the Teacher’s Edition, you understand how I used the metaphor of the pencil to explain a series of economic issues. The metaphor of the pencil is a powerful tool for explaining the market’s ability to coordinate individual production despite the fact that there is no central planning agency. I also applied Bastiat’s analytical principle of the things seen and the things not seen. This is sometimes called the broken window fallacy. I used that strategy in my book, Christian Economics in One Lesson. It worked for Henry Hazlitt. I hope it worked for me.
If you pursue the life of a scholar, you will have to read a great deal more about economic theory, economic history, and the relationship between law and economics. I had to do this in preparation for writing this book. I had virtually no assistance from Christian scholars who had written detailed books and articles relating these issues to the Bible, Trinitarian theology, and the history of the church’s impact on economic theory. There was no body of literature when I began this investigation in 1960, and there is virtually none today. This is why Christian economics is a wide-open field. But this is nothing new. This has always been the problem. “He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves’” (Luke 10:2-3).
You must become skilled in the art of casuistry. You must learn how to apply the general principles that you find in specific texts of the Bible to specific intellectual problems and economic practices around you. This is an art, not a science. But this is equally true of casuistry in every area of life. This is the exercise of Christian wisdom. This is the meaning of judgment. Ultimately, this is the task of understanding good and evil. There are no shortcuts. There were no shortcuts in the garden of Eden, and there are no shortcuts today.
In Part 4, I present a series of explicitly Christian applications of explicitly biblical requirements of Christian economics. The church from the beginning has been aware of the necessity of implementing these applications. There is still much work to be done in understanding the meaning of these principles and their applications today.
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