St. Maximos' Hut

As a new member to the list, I would like to introduce myself. I am economist at Hope College, a liberal arts school affiliated with the Reformed Church of America. Previously, I was at LSU and Miami University in Ohio. I obtained my Ph.D. from UCLA and Harold Demsetz was my thesis advisor. Another member of the group, P.J. Hill, and I are revising a paper in which we look at some of the reasons some theologians are very critical of market economies. We utilize an argument of Hayek--that people want to live in the small group where personal relationships are important, but benefit from living in a large, complex system where impersonal relationships dominate.
I plan on continuing with the project by looking at other reasons many theologians don't like market systems, including a group that is known as radical orthodoxy. John Milbank is the biggest name in the group, although D. Stephen Long wrote a book, DIVINE ECONOMY, that focuses more on economic issues and analysis. Milbank advocates Christian socialism and wants to see the economy organized on the basis of gift since creation is a gift from God. According to Milbank, western thought went astray with Duns Scotus and Ockham with the result that we have secularity, nihilism, individualism, and capitalism. He and others take it for granted that capitalism is unjust and anti-Christian. Long argues that economists should heed theologians and that we need to return to theology as the queen of the sciences. While I am sympathetic to such an argument as a Christian--all of life is under the lordship of Christ--neither Long nor Milbank have convinced me that they are the theologians I should listen to. This project has grown since I first had the idea, and fear it could never come to an end--there is always something else to read and, as anyone who tries to write knows, reading is a lot easier work than writing.