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Can God or the Market Set People Free?
Author(s) -
Blosser Joe
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of religious ethics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.306
H-Index - 20
eISSN - 1467-9795
pISSN - 0384-9694
DOI - 10.1111/jore.12012
Subject(s) - morality , action (physics) , preference , epistemology , philosophy , field (mathematics) , set (abstract data type) , sociology , supreme court , law and economics , law , economics , political science , mathematics , computer science , physics , quantum mechanics , microeconomics , pure mathematics , programming language
Both P rotestant theologians and “preference” economists believe that freedom is necessary for moral action, but such theologians and economists have seemingly irreconcilable accounts of freedom and, thus also, morality. Instead of learning from each other, they typically ignore each other or claim that one field reigns supreme over the other. This essay digs into the theological and economic traditions of each side to find points of similarity between them. It engages A dam S mith and E rnst T roeltsch to develop a view of “ethical freedom” that pulls together the “libertarian freedom” emphasized by preference economics and the “egalitarian freedom” emphasized in much P rotestant theology. The three‐part view of freedom draws the disciplines together and opens possibilities for a more robust theory of moral action.