The Acton Institute is proud to sponsor the latest symposium in Econ Journal Watch: “Does Economics Need an Infusion of Religious or Quasi-Religious Formulations?”

EJW editor Daniel B. Klein introduces the theme in a fine Prologue, in which he writes, “our focus is the enrichment of economics: Is economics suffering from an undue flatness? If so, why is that happening? If economics needs an infusion of richer concepts, what are some of the richer concepts? Also, if economics needs an infusion, for what purposes is it that such infusion is needed? What purposes is economics trying, but failing, to serve, because it lacks richer concepts?”

Robin Klay of Hope College and an executive board member of our own Journal of Markets & Morality opens the symposium with a survey of the landscape on these questions with her contribution, “Where Do Economists of Faith Hang Out? Their Journals and Associations, plus Luminaries Among Them.”

EJW has put together another 17 response essays, in which luminaries in their own right weigh in on the theme from a variety of religious and methodological perspectives. Browse this issue of EJW and download the entire issue for your own perusal as well.

And for more reflection on the intersection of theology and economics, be sure to check out the Journal of Markets & Morality. The archived issues are open access, and to get the latest two issues in either digital or hardcopy format, you can get a subscription for yourself or mend it to a colleague or institutional library. Last month I also lectured at the Henry Center at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School on “A Match Made in Heaven: Why Theology and Economics Need Each Other,” with a substantive and engaging response and discussion afterwards with Stephen Long of Marquette University.