Economic Parables: The Monetary Teachings of Jesus Christ Book

I was a bit disappointed by this book. I was expecting some sort of integration of the Bible and economic theory, but it was instead merely a shallow defense of capitalism.

There is of course nothing wrong with defending capitalism, it is the best economic system we have, it's just that if you are going to go to the trouble of writing a book on the economy why not offer some sort of critique while you're at it.

I find it troubling that the author makes little effort to offer a balance viewpoint and let reader make up their own minds. Instead he frequently singles out "liberal theologians" for criticism without addressing any of the flaws of conservative thinking.

Towards the end of the book he stokes conservative fears with tales of "liberal elites" who want to re-engineer society and the economy in one direction without mentioning conservative elites like Rupert Murdoch or the Koch brothers who trying to engineer them in the opposite direction.

In chapter 8 he tries to take us all off the hook any sort of energy conservation or sustainability saying, "Either we have finite means - which will one day run out unless we stop using them - or we do not. In reality,we don't know what quantity of resources we have. Nor do we know what future generations will discover and innovate for themselves." In doing so he presents the same short-term head-in-the-sand-thinking that has gotten us to where we are now. I cannot endorse a strategy that calls for us to blindly maintain the status quo and hope that our kids can somehow figure a way out of the mess we are leaving them.

He does begin to strike a better balance in the afterword where he addresses the financial meltdown, where a more cynical person would say he finally has to face the results of the principles he has been endorsing throughout the book.

I of course am not that cynical person.

All in all, this is the sort of book that gives Christian "thinking" a bad name. It reminds me of Business for the Glory of God by Wayne Grudem, only not as bad.