Abstract

This paper sets out the way in which economists think about the role of government in the affairs of persons, and to indicate how Christian affections might bear on such questions. As economics sees it, the central issue at stake here revolves around the working properties of two alternative mechanisms for reaching social decisions-the decentralized mechanism characteristic of markets on the one hand; and the centralized or “collective” mechanisms characteristic of politics, on the other. This issue is itself an analytic one, on which the Christian qua Christian would seem to have little to contribute. However, it may be that the terms in which economists think about the role of government are defective, or too narrow-or that the criteria of evaluation that economists have in mind are at odds with important themes in Christian Thinking. I have tried to suggest in what ways this might be so, and thereby the areas where dialogue between Christian and economist might most effectively be joined.