The relationship between economists and religious thinkers is often acrimonious. In this Occasional Paper, an economist and a theologian examine some of the causes of this conflict. While acknowledging that there is bound to be a certain degree of tension because of the divergent philosophical premises underlying the economist’s and Christian thinker’s respective ways of understanding the world, they also illustrate that much of the conflict arises from misunderstanding and sometimes ignorance of the nature of the different perspectives that each brings to bear upon the same situations.

Neither author claims to have all the answers to what are, after all, very complex questions about theories of human knowledge, the history of ideas and a number of eternally relevant philosophical and theological disputes. Instead they attempt to clear the path towards a more productive and informed dialogue between economists and Christian thinkers.