Abstract

In contrast to theologians who think economics has little or nothing to teach us, and economists who balk at the strictures a nonnative discipline like theology might seek to impose, this essay explores the prospects for interdisciplinary research between theotogy and economics over the next quarter century and beyond. Theology needs economics because piety is no substitute for technique, according to Etienne Gilson. Economics needs theology because man does not live on GDP per capita alone. And, theology and economics find their reconciliation in the mediating and nonnative discipline of ethics, which shows why the question of virtue ethics and the marketplace is a particularly promising area of future research on the connections between theology, economics, and ethics.