InterreligiousDialogue Series The World Marlcet Catherine Cornille, SeriesEdiror and InterreligiousDialogue
VOLUMESIN THESERIES: t Criteria of Discernment in InterreligiousDialogue (zoo9) z InterreligiousHermeneutics (zoro)
3 The WorldMarket and InterreligiousDialogue (2011) 4Interreligious Dialogue and the Cultural Shapingof Religions (forthcoming)
5 InterreligiousDialogue and Utopia (forthcoming)
edited by CATHERINE CORNILLE & GLENN WILLIS
rrr,"rrr, uL DooKs. L-rregon !! ",ugene, THE WORLD MARKET AND INTNRRELIGIOUSDIALOGUE Contents
InterreligiousDialogue Series 3
Copyright @zorr Wipf and Stock.All rights reserved.Except for brief quotationsin critical publicationsor reviews,no part of this book may be reproducedin anymanner without prior writtenpermission from the publisher. Write: Permissions,Wipf and StockPublishers, r99 W. 8th Ave.,Suite 3, Eugene, Acknowledgementsvii OR 974or. Introduction: On Economic Development CascadeBooks and Interreligious Dialogue ix An Imprint of Wipf and StockPublishers CATHERINE CORNILLE rgq W 8th Ave.,Suite 3 Eugene,OR 974or Part l: ReligiousPerspectives ISBNr3: 978-r-6Lo97 - 5oo-l r Prophetsand Profits:Interreligious Dialogue Cat aIo ging- in -P ubli c i at on d ata : and EconomicDevelopment 3 PAUL F. KNITTER The world market and interreligious dialogue / edited by Catherine Cornille and Glenn Willis. z judaism, Economic Life, and Business z8 Interreligious Dialogue Series 3 ELLIOT N, DORFF
nrii + 294 p. ; z3 cm. 3 IslamicLaw Shari'ah-basedFinance, and Economics 5z IsBN r3: 978-r-6ro97 - Soo-L CANER K. DAGLI
r. Economics-Religious aspects.2. Religion-Relations. 3. Religious pluralism. 4. Dialogue-Religious asp,ects.I. Cornilie, C. (Catherine). II. Willis, 4 Linking Ethics and Economicsfor Integral Development: Glenn. III. Title. IV Series. The Need for a New Economic Paradigmand the Three Dimensions of Islam 7o BL41W63 2o11 WALEED EL-ANSARY
Manufacturedin the U.S.A. 5 The Povertyof Economic Development 9r DAVID R. LOY Ireland Theology,Economics, and EconomicDevelopment
Implications,conclusions, and recommendationsmust thereforebe statedtentatively, with all of the necessaryqualifications, always leav- ing a host of unresolved issuesto be dealt with in future research. Progressis slow but steady. So I really wouldnt say-as Paul Knitter suggestseariier in this volume-that economics is a religion for me. A craftsman builds a nice, sturdy table that is first and foremost functional, but perhaps 13 pleasingto look at as well. I'11be honest enough to say,at the risk of sounding presumptuous, that I hope my best researcharticles offer Theology, Economics,and Economic Development up something of the same,in the form of useful, although narrowly focused,insights into the workings of the U.S. economy,drawn from Peter N. Ireland. careful and detailed mathematical and statisticalanalyses that at least a few readersmight find aestheticallypleasing. But there'sabsolutely nothing in any of my work that even remotely approachesthe divine.3 And so it was simultaneotrslya pleasure,privilege, and welcome change of pace to participate in the Boston College Symposium on Nothing to me the life of Gygesand his glut of gold.I neitherenry Interreligious Dialogue and Economic Development-a chance to nor admirehim, asI watchhis life and what he does.I want no take a big step back from my day-to-day work and consider,for once, pride of tyranny;it lies far offfrom whereI look bigger issuesconcerning the effectsof economic growth on the spiri- -AncnttocHus oF Pe,Ros' tual and material well-being of developingcountries and their inhabit- ants. It was also a chanceto reflect on the ways in which the efforts In my work as an economist, I rarely consider what anyonemight call of economists,or at least those who call themselveseconomists, get the "big picture." Instead, my researchfocuses on very specificaspects interpreted by scholarsoutside of my own field. In thesereflections, I'11 of very specificproblems, most having to do with the details of Federal argue mainly that theologians and economistsagree on far more and Reservepoiicy and how it has affected the U.S. economy during the post-World War II period. It deals, that is, with the activities of one instance, the Federal Reserve, which as our nationt central bank is responsible for particular government agency within one particular country during regulating the quantity of money in circulation, no longer supplies the public with one particular historical episode.And sinceeconomists are social sci- accurate and coherent data on the money supply, a fact discussed further in some entists who, for the most part, lack the ability to conduct controlled of my recent work: Michael T. Belongia and Peter N. Ireland, "The Barnett Critique experiments, I spend most of my time collecting and analyzing sta- after Three Decades:A New Keynesian Analysis," Working Paper 736 (Chestnut Hill, MA: Boston College, Department of Economics, April zoro). For a related analysis tistical data to find paribus support for ceteris theoretical arguments that links the lack of accurate monetary data to policy mistakes, public and private, basedon actual events in which.the ceterisare definitely not paribus." that may have contributed to the onset and severity ofthe recent financial crisis, see William A. Barnett and Marcelle Chauvet, "How Better Monetary Statistics Could * I wouldlike to thankparticipants in Boston College'sSeminar on Catholic Have Signaled the Financial Crisisl' Manuscript (Lawrence: University of Kansas, Intellectual Traditions for numerous conversations that helped clarifi my thoughts Department of Economics, April zoro). For developing countries, reliable economic on these and many related issues. statistics are even harder to come by, but that is more understandable, when their t. Greek Lyrics, trans. Richmond Lattimore, znd ed. (Chicago: University of governments face far more pressing concerns than getting all ofthe data up on the Chicago Press,196o) z. WorldWide Web.
z. One might guess that the first part ofthese exercises,involving data collec- 3. For the craftsman, though, things might be quite diflerent in this last regard, tion, would be easier these days, thanks to the large volume of information available as suggestedby Richard Sennett, The Crajlsman (New Haven: Yale University Press, freely through the World Wide Web. But this often turns out not to be the case.For zoo8).
250 25L The World Market and Interreligious Dialogue Part II Ireland Theology,Economics, and EconomicDevelopment
to a much greater extent than, probably,the paperscollected here sug- Of course,the conclusionsof their positiveanalyses are going to gest.But how can we really agreewhen we seem so much to disagree? be influenced by the choicesthat economiststhemselves make about Answering this question requiresfirst going back to my day-to-day what factors to consider in detail, and what aspectsof reality to deem- work, to explainhow economistssee their job and how economicre- phasizewhen developingtheories and tracing out their implications. sults are sometimes rnisapplied or misinterpreted by economistsand At the sametime, however,data provide an unforgiving check against non-economistsalike. prejudicesand biases.If an economictheory hastestable implications that are systematicallycontradicted by observationsof actual econom- ic behavior-perhaps becausethe economist has made assumptions Positive and Normative Economics that reflect how he or she would like the world to be in place of as- An example helps illustrate my first point, regarding the nature of sumptions that reflect how the world actuallyis-then that theory gets economists'work. Consider two economic actors. One is a late- rejectedand a new one must be found to take its place.That is how the eveningcommuter, the other is a robber.The robber approachesthe scientific methodworks. commuter on an otherwise abandoned subway platform and pulls a None of this is to say that economistsdont have strong feelings knife. A threat-"your money or your life"-makes clearthe terms of about how the world should be, comparedto how it actually is. I myself trade. The commuter hands over the money and escapeswith his life. certainly do. It is simply to sal that when, for example,an economist One might use the language of economics to call this an "efficient" writes that certain provisions of the U.S.tax code or certain aspectsof outcome:both agentsare better of with the exchangeof money for life the way in which technologicalchanges have affected American work- than they would have been without. ers appearto haveled to an increasein income inequality, he or she is This exampleis a joke that no one-economist or otherwise- doing scientific work in economics,making positive statementsabout would take seriously.Yet it also provides an illustration of how a theory the sourcesof this growth in inequality. And if the same economist that relies on the assumption that eachindividual actsrationally in his later decriesthat samegrowth in income inequality, perhapseven us- or her own self-interestcan havepredictive power, sincethe most likely ing argumentsthat echo those of theologians,he or sheis making nor- outcome is probably the one that the exampledescribes, in which the mative statementsabout how the world should be. Thereis no inherent commuter escapesdeath and the robber runs offwith the money. This contradiction, by which doing the first line of scientific work requires is an outcome that, however likely would not be consideredjust-both one to abandon the moral sentimentsthat underlie the secondline of agentsmay not, in fact, be better off. normative reasoning. The examplehighlights a distinction that economistssee them- When discussinga robbery, the distinction betweenpositive and selvesmaking all the time, the distinction between positive and nor- normative analysis is easy to make. But there is also a very famous mative analysis.Most economistsuse the assumption that consumers, set of economic studies-having to do with Adam Smith's"invisible workers,and businessowners are rational and self-interestedto pre- hand" and the theorems of welfare economicspresented by Kenneth dict how those economic actors will respond to changesin their en- Arrow and Gerard Debreu-which demonstrate that, under certain vironment, such as changesin-technologies, government policies, or circumstances,the rational and self-interestedactions of individual the availability of natural resources.By using logic in this way,to trace consumers, workers, and business owners generateequilibrium re- out the predictions or testableimplications of our explicitly stated as- sourceallocations that are Paretooptimal, giving rise through free and sumptions,economists as social scientistsemulate our colleaguesin voluntary exchangeto outcomesin which it is impossibleto make any- the physical sciences,seeing the world as it is rather than as we wish one better offwithout making at leastsomeone else worse off.4 Here is it might be. 4. See Adam Smith, Afl inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nafions, ed. Edwin Cannan (New York Modern Library, tgll) +z1 Seealso Kenneth 252 253 The World Market and Interreligious Dialogue Part II Ireland Theology,Economics, and EconomicDevelopment
where the lines between positive and normative economics begin to much further, adapting narrower but more conventional measuresof blur, becausethese theorems do connect what is, and what in a very national income (such as grossdomestic product) in order to account particular senseshould be. appropriatelyfor changesin environmental qualiry and therebyintro- Although all economists recognize stringent requirements for ducing the notion of sustainabilityinto theoriesof long-run economic testing these welfare theorems, I concede that many of us display a growth.6 tendency to forget these stringenciesand too quickiy make the claim Among economists,even skeptics about the topic of sustainability that free markets deliver optimal outcomes.Many economiststoo fre- agreethat the Clean Air Act of ry7o and its various amendmentshave quently forget that what might appearat first glanceto involve free and been crucial to improving environmental quality in the United States.T voluntary exchangeoften involves elements of coercion that are dis- And eventhose who criticize harshly the designof the Kyoto Protocol turbingly similar to those described in my joke example from above. assertthat the United Statesand other high-incorhe countries must So let's consider this a first point of agreementbetween economists take the lead in the fight againstglobal climate changeby unilaterally and theologians:all too often, a very large gap persistsbetween what is adopting government policies that curtaii greenhousegas emissions.s and what should be. Indeed,something of a consensus-a rarity among economistsand, I assume,among theologians as well-has emerged from the many economic studies of global climate change,calling for governmental The Invisible Hand and the Environment policies that take effect immediately and gradually impose tighter and Although economists probably do overestimatethe extent to which tighter restrictionson emissions.e free markets give rise to desirableoutcomes as predicted by the welfare theoremsof Arrow and Debreu,here is a secondpoint on which theo- Economists and Economic Policymakers logians and economists can agree:unregulated free markets generally lead to excessivelyrapid natural resource depletion and undesirable "Bewareof falseprophets . . I' This is something that theologianshave if not disastrous environmental degradation. Statementslike the fol- said all along, but which economists are now learning the hard way. lowing, taken from a leading undergraduateeconomics textbook, can Hence,it is another point on-which we all can agree. in fact be found quite easily: "Economists use the term mar|
changes acceleratedand spread further and further throughout the a bank regulator, responsiblefor ensuring the safety and soundness world following the collapse of the Soviet Union in r99t. At first the of the American financial system.Indeed, Greenspan'sexpression of gains seemed impressive, with high rates of growth recorded in in- "shocked disbelief" during his October 23, zoo8, testimony before come and wealth, albeit distributed unequally both within and across the CongressionalCommittee on Oversight and Government Reform countries. Yet even for the relativeiy fortunate, the apparentprosper- might remind theologians,economists, and many othersof the sorts ity turned out to be an illusion, based largely on speculativeactivity of statementsabout clergy sexualabuse that usedto come from Boston financed with borrowed money. Eventually,the bills came due, and in Archbishop Bernard Francis Law's office. Hearing thesethings leaves zooT and zoo8 the world economyplunged into its deepestcontrac- one wondering, reasonably,whether either man, even after being tion sincethe r93os,where it remainsmired today,with little sign of confronted with evidence,will ever fully appreciatethe depth of the meaningfulrecovery. tragedy that happenedunder his watch. My purpose here is not to take issue with this popular account Of course,there is no governing body-local, national, or inter- of recent history, to point out ways in which it may be oversimpli- national-that certifies or licensesthose who wish to call themselves fied, incomplete, or inaccurate.Instead, my focus is on the story itself, "economists"the way, for example,there is for medical doctors, bar- particularly the fact that within this story,many of the biggestapparent bers,and other trained professionals.Still, it needsto be emphasized heroes-turned-villainsare economists-or at least people popularly that other major figures involved in'economic policymaking just be- viewed as economists.Chief among them standsAlan Greenspan, fore, during, and after the U.S. financial crisis of zooT and zoo8 also Chairman ofthe FederalReserve System from 1987through zoo6. lacked formal training that would qualify them as economists.Henry But, truth be told, few of my colleagueswould recognize Alan Paulson, Secretary of the United States Treasury under President Greenspanas a serious economist. He holds a doctorate in economics, GeorgeW Bush when the crisis beganto unfold, holds an MBA from but one receivedunder somewhat dubious circumstancesmany years Harvard and worked for Goldman Sachsfrom 1974, serving as the after he left New York University, the institution granting the degree.'o investment banks Chairman and Chief Executive Officer beginning On those grounds alone,Alan Greenspanshould be consideredun- in 1999,up until his nomination to public office in zoo6. As Treasury qualified to teach even introductory-levelcollege classes in econom- Secretary,therefore, Paulson was a former investment banker with ics, let alone hold a regular faculty position at an Am€rican university. long-standingand rather strong professionalties to one of the firms And my own senseis that the feeling is mutual: as FederalReserve that he was chargedwith overseeingand which, ultimately, benefited Chairman,Alan Greenspanappeared at bestuninterested in, and often enormously from the U.S. government'sunprecedented involvement openly hostile to, the researchagendas pursued evenby his own staf of in the financial markets during October zoo8. PhD economistsat the Federal ReserveBoard. Perhapsdeeper investigations,conducted after everyone'smem- Alan Greenspandid hold government positions-all unelected- oirs get published, will revealthat Henry Paulsonwas as tough on his throughout most of his career, culminating in his lengthy term as former firm as he would have been on any other individual or insti- Federal ReserveChairman-, for which he is most famous. I therefore tution that askedthe Bush Administration for federal assistanceand suggestthat it would be both.fairer and more accurateto call Alan was turned away.Perhaps those investigationswill show that Goldman Greenspan an "economic policymaker" rather than an "economist." Sachsand other large financial institutions were simply much more And, as an economic policymaker, the popular account of history deserving as welfare recipients than, for instance,many of the fami- probably gets it right: Greenspan'sbiggest legacy stems from the many lies that felt slighted by the government'sfeeble response to Hurricane years during which he overlooked his institution's public duties as Katrina just a few yearsearlier. It could be. But, basedon information that is availablenow, there would appearto be at leastthe possibility of ro. RobertD. Auerbach,Deception and Abuse at theFed: Henry B. Gonzales troublesome conflicts of interest behind the very generoustreatment BattlesAlan Greenspan'sBaak (Austin: University ofTexas Press, zooS) 36-38. 256 257 The World Market and Interreligious Dialogue Part II Ireland Theology,Economics, and EconomicDevelopment
given by the U.S.Treasury to the big investmentand commercial banks posits that prices in financial markets accuratelyand rationally reflect in zoo8, following a quarter century of deregulation, fiscal austerity, all information availableto traders in those financial markets, strikes welfare reform, and reliance on the blind justice of the free market. me as the biggest irony of all." To the contrary, in Septemberzoo8, Finally, Timothy Geithner, Presidentof the FederalReserve Bank the financial markets priced commercial paper issued by Lehman of New York during the early stagesof the crisis and, later, Henry Brothers and AIG perfectly, identifuing quite exactly what that paper Paulson'ssuccessor as secretary of the United StatesTreasury, does was worth: zero. Those were insolvent institutions that should have hold a master's degree in international economics from the ]ohns been placed into receivershipand liquidated in the sameway that, for Hopkins University, And, to be sure, it stands as a truly remarkable instance,bankrupt savingsand loan institutions were disposedof dur- accomplishment,reflecting enormous talent of somekind or another, ing the previousU.S. financial crisis in the r99os.'3Scarce taxpayer that Timothy Geithner, who just before his Senate confirmation funds would then have been availableto help the truly needy,instead hearings in Januaryzoog revealedhimself to be someoneincapable ofgoing to help paythe extraordinarysalaries and bonuses awarded to of correctly filling out his own federalincome tax forms, now heads executivesat those and other financial institutions that were driven to up the U.S. Treasury,which includes the Internal RevenueService as the brink of failure and beyond by managersand regulatorswho were one of its major divisions.Yet however admirable his personalsuccess unwilling to control the risks outlined so clearlyby Rajan. in overcoming this handicap and rising to power, Timothy Geithner, But economicpolicymakers chose to ignorg Rajanswarnings in like Alan Greenspan, lacks strong academic credentials and has no zoo5. And eventoday, six yearslater, no one from the FederalReserve record of scientific or scholarly achievement.Instead, like Greenspan, or the U.S. Treasury-nor for that matter any economist from any in- Geithner has spent most of his career in unelectedgovernment posi- stitution-has ofered up any sort of convincing explanation asto why tions. He is an economic policymaker, not an economist. it was necessaryfor the U.S. government to intervene in the economy Ironically, it was a true economist-a University of Chicago so heavily in zooT and zoo8, on behalf of what had been some of the economist, in fact-who sounded the loudest and clearestalarm in biggest and most profitable financial institutions in the history of the the years leading up to the crisis. In a papenpresented-even more world. Some still assert,without supporting evidence,that if the gov- ironically-at a 2oo5 Federal Reserve conferencehonoring Alan ernment had not intervened-to savethe big banks, the broader eco- Greenspan,Raghuram G. Rajanwarned that developmentsin the U.S. nomic downturn that followed would have been far worse. But ]ohn financial system,including the strong trend towards deregulation,had Taylor'sextensive analysis shows, to the contrary, that the worst of the given rise to an environment in which fund managers had greaterin- financial crisis actually followedtestimonygiven by TreasurySecretary centives than ever before to take on risk, to conceal that extra risk, Henry Paulson and Federal ReserveChairman Ben Bernanke to the and to engagein herd-like behavior that amplifies both upward and U.S. SenateBanking Committee on September23, zoo8, askingfor downward swingsin assetprices." Rajanwent on to describehow "tail $zoo billion in aid to rescuewhat would otherwise have been bank- risks"-extreme eventsthat occur with low probability- could trigger a'tatastrophic meltdown" quite closelyresembling the crisisthat did rz. For a brief introductionto the eftcientmarkets hypothesis, see Mankiw indeedoccur just a few yearslater. Principles of Economics,6o6-7. r3. Indeed, since neither Lehman Brothers as an investment bank nor AIG as The fact that when the crisis did occur, it was interpreted by many a life insurance company qualifies as a depository institution-that is, a bank that as decisive evidence against the efficient markets hypothesis, which primarily issues deposits and makes loans-the creditors of these institutions were not, strictly speaking, entitled to any ofthe special treatment given to the holders of rr. Even the tide of the conference volume in which Rajans paper appears takes small, federally insured deposits issued by failed savings and loan associations.With on a new and almost laughable, significance when viewed against the backdrop of this distinction in mind, one could argue, more strongly, that both Lehman Brothers the events that soon followed: see Raghuram G. Rajan, "Has Financial Development and AIG should simply have been liquidated through standard channels, like any Made the world Riskier?" in The GreenspanEra: Lessonsfor the Future (Kanrur city, other bankrupt business, wilhout the need for any special government intervention FederalReserve Bank ofKansas City, zoo5) 3r3-69. whatsoever. 258 259 The World Market and Interreligious Dialogue Part II Ireland Theology,Economics, and EconomicDevelopment
rupt financial institutions.'a Taylor's observations suggest that the accompaniedby the emergenceof new problems, to which many of government bailout worsened, rather than ameliorated,the financial the papers in this volume usefully point. Certainly, it is quite easyto crisis and its aftereffects.Again, all signs now visible point to the large find in the United States,the world's richest economy,vulgar displays financial institutions themselvesas the biggest,and perhaps even the of conspicuousconsumption. And globalization seemsto bring with sole, beneficiaries of the U.S. government'srenewed involvement in it a spreadof that samekind of vulgarity, which becomesall the more the economyin zoo8. tragic when it erodes noble habits, displacesworthy traditions, and In mentioning all of this, I supposethat I am calling for an eiabo- disturbs more peacefulways of life. ration on the popular account of recent history after all. A more com- But while, thus far, I've emphasizedthat there are quite a few pleteand comprehensiveaccount ofthat history,it seemsto me,would points of agreementbetween theologians and economists,before fin- haveto observethat both the financialcrisis and the subsequentpolicy ishing I will suggestthat it might be a mistake to conclude, just yet, responsesreflect the workings, not of markets that are truly free, su- that economic growth is on balancea bad thing. To defend this claim, It pervisedby trained economistsand competentregulators who would I would cite the obvious casestudies, comparing living standardsin ril have recognized that when free markets work efficiently, they do so North Korea to those in South Korea and in the stagnanteconomies of i partly becausethey deem no business'too big to faili'but rather the Africa to those in the rapidly expandingeconomies of Asia. I would re- successfulefforts ofthe rich, the greedy,and the politically well con- fer to the evidenceshowing strong correlations between gross domes- nectedto usegovernment coercion for their own further enrichment.'5 tic product asa measureof national income and other, more important As common as it is, this sort of perverseredistribution ofwealth, away issuesthat theologians and economists should really care about, like from the most needy and towards the'most affluent,remains some- life expectanciesand literacy rates.'7I would also point to recent work thing to be abhorred,regardless ofwhether it occursunder a social- casting doubt on the so-called Easterlin Paradox,which suggeststhat ist dictatorship, an oppressivetheocratic regime, or a representative an economyt level of development bears no relation to the average democracy.And that point, too, is one upon which theologiansand level of happinessexpressed by those who populate that economy.'8 economistscan agree. Finally, I would mention evidence associatingrising income within a country at first with a decrease,but later with an increase,in envi- ronmental quality.',Apparently, wealthier people do chooseto spend Conclusion more of their income in order to enjoy the benefits of a cleaner en- The Notorious B.I.G.-who was quick to point out that he himselfheld vironment. More money, by itself, wort't savethe world. But perhaps no doctorate in theology, economics,or any other field-famously more money might at leastbe of some help, lamented that, all too often, more money simply leads to more prob- Still, genuine progress on the significant problems that remain lems.'6True enough.And, likewise,economic development is usually requires more than just hope or wishful thinking. And so, I'd like to conclude by seconding lames Buchanan'scall, made earlier in this
14. John B. Tayloa Getting Of Track:.How Government Actions and Interventions Caused, Prolonged, and Worsened the Financial Crisis (Stanford: Hoover Institution r7. Seethe table of statistics presented by M anlow, Principlesof Economics, 523. Press,zoog). r8. For a comparison, see Richard A. Easterlin, "Does Economic Growth r 5. For a more thorough account of the financial crisis along exactly these lines, Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence," in Nations and Househods as well as a more nuanced and compelling account of recent U.S. history that identi- in Economic Growth: Essaysin Honor of Moses Abramovitz, ed. Paul A. David and fies the myriad social, cultural, and political as well as economic forces that set the Melvin W Reder (NewYork Academic Press, 1974) 8g-tz5; and Betsey Stevenson stage for the crisis, seeEtay Zwick, "Predatory Habits: How Wall Street Transformed and Justin Wolfers, "Economic Growth and Subjective Well-Being: Reassessingthe Work in Americal'The Point (Winter zoro) 33-46. Easterlin Paradoxi'Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (Spring zoog) r-87. 16. The Notorious B.I.G,, "Mo Money, Mo Problems," Life After Death (New r9. See Gene M. Grossman and.Alan B. Krueger, "Economic Growth and the York Bad Boy Records,1997). Environmentj' QuarterlyJournal of Economicsrro (rggs) 3fi-77. 26o z6r. volume,for seriousdialogue or, betteryet, "engagement"-Buchanans own word, implying the need for actions as well as words-not just betweenthe worldt religions but betweentheologians, economists, economicpolicymakers, and religious and political leadersas well, aimed at tackling head-on the problems associatedwith economic development.Indeed, at the risk of further complicatingthe rogistics of dialogue,I would invite scholarsacross alr academicdisciplines, in the humanities,social sciences, and physicalsciences, to join us in 14 theseconversations and endeavors.For, asBuchanan rightly notes,the problems of economic developrnentloom larger than any othersfaced Different Views of the World: by humanity today.Consider this one final point of agreement.The Economists and Theologians time certainly has comefor us all to stop cowering in the faceof these problems and to demonstrate,clearly and forcefully,what we haveto Walter contribute in working towards solutions,which surelymust exist. Nonneman
Genuine dialogue between theologiansor religious thinkers and economistsproves to be notoriously difficult. while the reasons for this difficulty may be many, I suggestthat, at bottom, it may be grounded in fundamentallydifferent views of the world. This leadsto different reading lists. what theologiansread on economicsand con- siderimportant economiclitirature, is likely to be dismissedby most economistas "heterodox economics" or not evenwithin the domainof economics.It would seemthat economicdevelopment for economists is a far more complex issuethan for theologians,as made evidentby recentwork in the areaof developmenteconomics. However, I do be- lieve in a possiblecommon agendafor economists,social scientists and theologianswhich might lead to a better understandingof real world problems.
Different Visions
Theologians and economists clearly have different visions of the world. Thomas Sowell has sketchedwhat thesedifferences of vision
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