The highlight of every economist’s career is the chance to teach his or her own “Principles of Microeconomics” course (or at least it should be). For the Christian economist, however, it is something even more spectacular. Introducing students to the economic way of thinking is also an opportunity to explore the mind of God together—whether or not we say it in so many words.
Mere Economics: Lessons for and from the Ordinary Business of Life, a new introduction to the economic way of thinking from a Christian perspective, says it in so many words. The book’s authors, Art Carden and Caleb Fuller, have been economics professors at notable Christian colleges for many years (Samford University and Grove City College, respectively), and the reader can hear many hours of classroom conversations behind the words on the page. Their approach follows the example of C.S. Lewis, who recorded talks for the BBC to articulate the beliefs held by most Christians for a public audience, which then became his famous book Mere Christianity. Similarly, Carden and Fuller present basic ideas about how “Paris gets fed” that most economists would agree with. In doing so, they carry on a tradition that begins with the Late Scholastics, called “mainline economics” (as opposed to the “mainstream” economic fashions of the day). The remarkable theme of this tradition is the assertion that “freedom and the general welfare are perfectly compatible with justice and peace … [a] presumption that stems from all that we know of the goodness and wisdom of God.”
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