When we read the Bible, we sometimes feel as though we’re reading about a parallel universe. If we’re honest, Scripture’s approach to our economic lives doesn’t just look foolish it looks entirely implausible. The problem with our situation may be that the kingdoms we live in seem more real than the one we encounter in the Bible. When we consider our unprecedented wealth and our increasing inner despair, we wonder whether our approach to economics, like that of the rich young ruler before us, has tempted us to walk away sad from our Lord’s invitation to follow him. In fact, some research even suggests that our pursuit of these rising incomes is contributing to the explosion in mental illness. Indeed, substance abuse, mental illness, and depression seem to have risen right alongside our rising incomes. Life expectancy is currently decreasing for white, middle-aged Americans, driven by high rates of suicide and substance abuse.Īll this is happening in the wealthiest nation that has ever existed on earth.4.2 million Americans met clinical criteria for dependence based on marijuana use in 2013.17.3 million Americans reported alcohol addiction or serious problems related to alcohol use in 2013.In 2013, 30.2 percent of men and 16.0 percent of women 12 and older reported binge drinking in the past month.Or consider these stats on substance abuse: Nearly 43 million Americans experience some form of mental illness each year. Indeed, between 19-a period of serious economic growth in America-suicides among people younger than 24 increased by 137 percent. Nearly 43,000 Americans commit suicide every year, making it the 10th-highest cause of death in the country. There are good reasons for our misgivings. When faced with such discrepancies between Jesus’s approach to our economic life and our culture’s approach, many of us sense we’re falling short of the life God intends for us. He might propose something like the following: “Economics is the study of humanity’s consumption, production, and exchange of goods and services in order to steward King Jesus’s creation.” We suspect that if the same Jesus who said “seek first the kingdom of God” were writing this textbook, he might define this field a bit differently. If we’re honest, the Bible’s approach to our economic lives doesn’t just look foolish it looks entirely implausible.įor example, consider the definition of economics in the opening pages of a popular introductory textbook: “Economics is concerned with the efficient use or management of limited productive resources to achieve maximum satisfaction of human material wants.” We have a hunch that if economics is, at its most basic, a discussion around consumption, production, and the exchange of goods and services, Jesus might call us to different patterns of consumption, production, and exchange than those of our Western world. Suddenly we sense that Jesus might teach Economics 101 quite differently than our high-school teachers did.
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