Author Archives: editors

Ellen Van Stichel Journal of Economics, Theology and Religion, vol. 5, no. 1 (2025): 141-155 AbstractAristotle’s conceptualization of chremastikè and oikonomia offers a foundational framework for understanding the distinction between an economy focused on the accumulation of wealth, as represented by chremastikè, and one that prioritizes the needs of all members of a “household,” asContinue reading “Back to Aristotle: Catholic Social Thought’s Plea for the Economy as ‘Oikonomia’”

Emilio Di Somma Journal of Economics, Theology and Religion, vol. 5, no. 1 (2025): 189-204 AbstractEconomics is a human activity. An understanding of such activity, therefore, cannot be achieved without an effort to understand the human person. As Bruni and Zamagni have affirmed, in their Dizionario di Economia Civile, social scientists and economists must takeContinue reading “Living Happily in a Happy Community: Economics as Friendship and Intersubjectivity”

Arttu Mäkipää Journal of Economics, Theology and Religion, vol. 5, no. 1 (2025): 27-43 AbstractThe vast majority of economists reject the relevance of theology for their discipline. This paper challenges that consensus. Theological anthropology sees human beings as simultaneously created in the image of God, but also as fallen (through original sin). I argue thatContinue reading “The Paradox of the Fall: the Economics of Genesis as the Genesis of Economics”

Masao Ogaki Journal of Economics, Theology and Religion, vol. 5, no. 1 (2025): 97-108 AbstractIn years to come, the “community mechanism” will become increasingly important. This is a mechanism in which at least one person voluntarily offers cooperation and is not rejected. The community mechanism complements the workings of the market mechanism (a mechanism basedContinue reading “The Economics and Theology of the Community Mechanism”

Lans Bovenberg & Bas van Os Journal of Economics, Theology and Religion, vol. 5, no. 1 (2025): 63-80 AbstractThe well-known prisoner’s dilemma shows why cooperation may be difficult to achieve even when cooperation would create value for all partners. In particular, material interests conflict because reciprocity cannot be enforced, while agents give priority to theirContinue reading “Faith and Love in the Prisoner’s Dilemma”

Lans Bovenberg & Bas van Os Journal of Economics, Theology and Religion, vol. 5, no. 1 (2025): 81-95 AbstractThis paper discusses how hope and love help to facilitate cooperation in sequential games by removing conflicts of interests. Rationality combined with material self-love induces players to build institutions that ensure that interests run parallel by constrainingContinue reading “Hope and Love in Sequential Games”

J. Arie Biemond & Harry Commandeur Journal of Economics, Theology and Religion, vol. 5, no. 1 (2025): 109-126 AbstractWestern thought has developed a view of human nature—which we call homo dignus—which focuses on human dignity as the core of human existence. Human dignity (related to human rationality and morality) entails a moral calling, on theContinue reading “Homo Dignus: A Dignified View of Human Nature for Economics?”

Joost Hengstmengel Journal of Economics, Theology and Religion, vol. 5, no. 1 (2025): 9-25 AbstractHomo economicus has justly been identified as the universal bogeyman of economics. Economic man, having been showered with criticism for a century and a half, continues to occupy critics to this day. Plenty of economists in the previous century have proclaimedContinue reading “Homo Economicus Ergo Homo Peccatus?”