Paul Oslington
Biographic Data
| ID | 1030360 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Paul Oslington |
| GIVEN NAMES | Paul |
| FAMILY NAME | Oslington |
| SIGNATURE | OSLINGTON P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Alphacrucis University College |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6819-3601 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 45 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 35 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Institutional Usury
This paper considers what contemporary financial ethics might learn for from more than 2000 years of Christian experience with usury. In the Hebrew Scriptures the law codes prohibit the charging of interest, and this is reinforced in the prophetic and wisdom books. In several Gospel texts Jesus deals tangentially with the issue. Usury was strongly condemned by the Church Fathers and came to be regulated by both canon law and civil law. In recent …
Alasdair MacIntyre and Adam Smith on markets, virtues and ends in a capitalist economy
In recent decades, Alasdair MacIntyre has developed a style of moral philosophy and an argument for Neo‐Aristotelian virtue ethics that has deeply influenced business ethics. Most of the work inspired by MacIntyre has dealt with individual and organisational dimensions of business ethics rather than the market economic environment in which individuals and organisations operate. MacIntyre has been a fierce critic of capitalism and economics. He ha…
The Economics of Bernard Lonergan
Bernard Lonergan S.J. (1904–1984) is unusual among major theologians in engaging deeply with economic theory. In the 1940s he developed his own dynamic multisectoral macroeconomic model, informed by readings of Adam Smith, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich Hayek, Joseph Schumpeter, and later Michal Kalecki. Lonergan’s economic research is little known because the economic manuscripts were not published in his lifetime and his interactions…
Beginnings
Aquinas and the Market
Book Review| April 01 2020 Aquinas and the Market: Toward a Humane Economy by Mary Hirschfeld Aquinas and the Market: Toward a Humane Economy. By Hirschfeld, Mary. Harvard University Press, 2018. 288 pp. $45.00. Paul Oslington Paul Oslington Alphacrucis College Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google History of Political Economy (2020) 52 (2): 399–403. https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-8173445 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twi…
From the Foundation of Liberal Political Economy to its Critique
The relationship between economics, religion, and morals are by far more complex than usually stated. It is possible to show that, at some crucial steps of the development of economics, religious thought gave it a decisive impetus, but it is also true that religious thought developed a strong critique of these very developments. The very beginning of the French eighteenth century allows us to exemplify the first kind of relationship: it shows how…
Theology and the Rise of Political Economy in Britain in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
In the eighteenth century, and for much of the nineteenth, Britain was a Christian society. In such a society, ideas are inevitably conceived within a theological matrix; and to be generally acceptable they must be consonant with prevailing theological orthodoxy. In eighteenth-century England and Scotland, there is hardly a trace of any dissonance between economic thought and Christian theology. But at the very end of that century there appeared …
Behavioral Economics of Religion
This chapter concerns the behavioral economics of religion. Themes considered include how religion potentially shapes individual preferences, the possible implications of religious affiliation for interaction within and between social groups, and the religious institution as a unit of the economy at large. This chapter is written with three main purposes in mind. The first is to consider different ways by which religion and economic behavior are …
The Economics of Religious Schism and Switching
Schism and switching are important in religious markets when strict monopoly or force is not involved. The Protestant Reformation is an important case and may be seen as entry of a new firm into a previously monopolized market. This was essentially rent dissipation. Other cases may involve religious consumers switching to firms that better match their religious preferences. Firms in such a setting make strategic decisions about doctrine and costs…
Pentecostal Approaches to Economics
This chapter outlines a Pentecostal approach to engaging with economics. It is tentative not only because there has not been to date substantive Pentecostal thinking about economics but also because it is impossible to make categorical statements about a movement that is rapidly growing and transforming. There is, however, a prevailing spirituality, a set of values and attitudes that are common among Pentecostals, notwithstanding their diversity,…
Happiness
There has been a revolution in how economists treat the subject of happiness: in happiness measurement, in new economic insights related to happiness, and in the area of policy consequences. This has the potential to set up a stimulating dialogue. This chapter works through one possible imaginary exchange of views between economists and theologians, beginning with the new awareness in economics of the relative failure of economic growth to make p…
Anglicanism
Earlier Anglican approaches to economics were influenced by its historical position as an established church with considerable political influence. This position has changed in the past half century, and Anglican economists since the pioneering post war work of Denys Munby in Britain and Paul Heyne in North America are moving toward a position of practical neutrality of theology with respect to economic science. Anglicans like Geoffrey Brennan co…
Economics in the Christian Scriptures
The Christian Scriptures do not contain what would be called modern economics, but they are replete with the concerns of economy, that is, the means of livelihood. The “economy of God” is a term in the Scriptures and the tradition designating God’s all-inclusive history with the creation and the human response to God’s economic work. Considering this larger framework is essential to understanding the particular economic material in the Scriptures…
Regulation of Religious Markets
This chapter summarizes the current state of economic research on the regulation of religious markets and suggests directions for the future. Following a discussion of the differing views of Adam Smith and David Hume on the wisdom of state support of religion, the chapter next describes the early work—mainly by sociologists—on the empirical relationship between religious pluralism and religious participation. Because of substantial flaws in the p…
Usury
Usury has a long and varied history. Originally the term referred to the charging of interest per se—that is, requiring a borrower to repay more than the principal sum borrowed from a lender. Over time borrowing and lending evolved to become an integral part of commercial life, and usury came to refer to the charging of excessive or unconscionable rates of interest on loans. The Christian church no longer opposes the charging of interest, althoug…
Poverty
The subjects of wealth and poverty are frequently and variously addressed in both the Old and the New Testaments and have been of crucial concern to Christians from the earliest days of the church down to the present day. Yet it would be seriously misleading to suggest that there is either a single or a simple Christian understanding of “poverty.” This chapter describes some of the understandings that have arisen within the Christian tradition. C…
Economic Models of Churches
The economics of religion lays aside transcendent claims of the church to study it as a social organization that uses scarce resources to achieve its ends. In contrast to the secularization models deployed by some sociologists of religion, economic models of religion tend to suggest that free markets for religious services will encourage continual entry of new organisations, steadily enriching religion. There is, however, no unified economic mode…
Anabaptist Approaches to Economics
Anabaptists have moved from a position of separatism to a call for faithful interaction with the world even if ambiguities lead to some compromises. Anabaptists can improve the secular order on the margins by joining with non-Christians who share some of their values and by providing in their businesses and consumer practices an alternative model of what faithful stewardship might look like for the Christian. For some, this is movement down a sli…
Weber, Theology, and Economics
Max Weber was neither a theologian nor an economist. He did not aspire to advocate, refine, or refute the doctrines taught in the Bible, by Augustine, Thomas, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Schleiermacher, any other major Christian thinker. Instead, he is the founder of a mode of social science that sought to account for changes and variations in economic and political attitudes, structures, and behavior in different social contexts and over time. These…
Economic Religion and Environmental Religion
The “economic religions” of the modern age, including Marxism, the American progressive-era “gospel of efficiency,” and the beliefs of the economic mainstream of the second half of the twentieth century, shared the conviction that economic progress—however it might best be achieved—would save the world. In the last decades of the twentieth century, however, economic religion was increasingly challenged by a new secular faith, “environmental relig…
Faith, Religion, and International Development
Discussion of faith, religion, and development often raises controversy, including over terminology. This chapter considers the various formal dialogues among development practitioners and faith-inspired actors, recounting the history and assessing future prospects. Ignoring or mismanaging the dialogue is likely to be costly for development, especially in some of the poorest parts of the world where faith and religion are particularly important.
Religious Labor Markets
Given the pivotal role of clergy inputs in church outputs, it is important to understand religious labor markets: how clergy are allocated to churches, how they are motivated and remunerated, and the implications of these factors for the performance of churches and denominations. Religious labor markets have particular characteristics. Like other motivated agents, clergy’s sense of call conditions their contractual and incentive structures. They …
Gender
Despite a large literature on gender in both theology and economics, economists and theologians have had little to say to each other on the subject. The intersection of economics, theology, and gender proves a fruitful one for biblical hermeneutics, however, showing the economics of gender to be intrinsically part of the biblical story of creation ideal, fall, and redemption. In the paradise of creation, absent scarcity, there is no gender differ…
Economics and Theology in Europe from the Nineteenth Century
This chapter analyzes the historical evolution of European Catholic theology and economic ideas from the turn of the nineteenth century to the late twentieth century. It focuses on the evolution of Catholic economic thought and its effort to evaluate the workings of economic life according to a definite set of religious principles, with particular attention to the attempts of building a distinctive Catholic approach to political economy (and late…
Interface and Integration in Christian Economics
The sad and lonely profile of late twentieth-century Christian scholarship in economics has enjoyed a refreshing makeover in the past two decades. Encouraging new research on the overlapping interface of faith and discipline has attained critical mass and fruitful momentum. This interface includes contributions under the umbrella term “economics of religion,” and somewhat-less-often cited contributions to “positional” and conflict economics, and …
Economic Thought and Religious Thought
religion
Economic Analysis and Moral Philosophy
Other| March 01 1998 Economic Analysis and Moral Philosophy Daniel M. Hausman and Michael S. McPherson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 249 pp. Paper, $29.95. Paul Oslington Paul Oslington Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google History of Political Economy (1998) 30 (1): 165–166. https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-30-1-165 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review …
John Henry Newman, Nassau Senior, and the Separation of Political Economy from Theology in the Nineteenth Century
Research Article| November 01 2001 John Henry Newman, Nassau Senior, and the Separation of Political Economy from Theology in the Nineteenth Century Paul Oslington Paul Oslington Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google History of Political Economy (2001) 33 (4): 825–842. https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-33-4-825 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Permissions Search Site Citation Paul Oslington; John…
Incentives in On‐line Education
A major problem with on-line education in contemporary universities is securing cooperation of teaching staff. This paper argues that even if the benefits of on-line learning are widely recognised, several incentive problems inhibit academic staff participation. These incentive problems include unverifiability of expertise in on-line learning, the firm-specific nature of investments in on-line learning and the team nature of on-line learning. Sug…
Adam Smith as Theologian
content:Introduction: Theological Readings of Smith. Paul Oslington Part I: Smith in Context 1. The Influence of Religious Thinking on the Smithian Revolution. Benjamin Friedman 2. Adam Smith, Theology and Natural Law Ethics. John Haldane 3. Sympathy and Domination: Adam Smith, Happiness, and the Virtues of Augustinianism. Eric Gregory 4. Christian Freedom in Political Economy: The Legacy of John Calvin in the Thought of Adam Smith. Joe Blosser 5…
God and the Market
From the Foundation of Liberal Political Economy to its Critique
The relationship between economics, religion, and morals are by far more complex than usually stated. It is possible to show that, at some crucial steps of the development of economics, religious thought gave it a decisive impetus, but it is also true that religious thought developed a strong critique of these very developments. The very beginning of the French eighteenth century allows us to exemplify the first kind of relationship: it shows how…
Theology and the Rise of Political Economy in Britain in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
In the eighteenth century, and for much of the nineteenth, Britain was a Christian society. In such a society, ideas are inevitably conceived within a theological matrix; and to be generally acceptable they must be consonant with prevailing theological orthodoxy. In eighteenth-century England and Scotland, there is hardly a trace of any dissonance between economic thought and Christian theology. But at the very end of that century there appeared …
Behavioral Economics of Religion
This chapter concerns the behavioral economics of religion. Themes considered include how religion potentially shapes individual preferences, the possible implications of religious affiliation for interaction within and between social groups, and the religious institution as a unit of the economy at large. This chapter is written with three main purposes in mind. The first is to consider different ways by which religion and economic behavior are …
The Economics of Religious Schism and Switching
Schism and switching are important in religious markets when strict monopoly or force is not involved. The Protestant Reformation is an important case and may be seen as entry of a new firm into a previously monopolized market. This was essentially rent dissipation. Other cases may involve religious consumers switching to firms that better match their religious preferences. Firms in such a setting make strategic decisions about doctrine and costs…
Pentecostal Approaches to Economics
This chapter outlines a Pentecostal approach to engaging with economics. It is tentative not only because there has not been to date substantive Pentecostal thinking about economics but also because it is impossible to make categorical statements about a movement that is rapidly growing and transforming. There is, however, a prevailing spirituality, a set of values and attitudes that are common among Pentecostals, notwithstanding their diversity,…
Happiness
There has been a revolution in how economists treat the subject of happiness: in happiness measurement, in new economic insights related to happiness, and in the area of policy consequences. This has the potential to set up a stimulating dialogue. This chapter works through one possible imaginary exchange of views between economists and theologians, beginning with the new awareness in economics of the relative failure of economic growth to make p…
Anglicanism
Earlier Anglican approaches to economics were influenced by its historical position as an established church with considerable political influence. This position has changed in the past half century, and Anglican economists since the pioneering post war work of Denys Munby in Britain and Paul Heyne in North America are moving toward a position of practical neutrality of theology with respect to economic science. Anglicans like Geoffrey Brennan co…
Economics in the Christian Scriptures
The Christian Scriptures do not contain what would be called modern economics, but they are replete with the concerns of economy, that is, the means of livelihood. The “economy of God” is a term in the Scriptures and the tradition designating God’s all-inclusive history with the creation and the human response to God’s economic work. Considering this larger framework is essential to understanding the particular economic material in the Scriptures…
Regulation of Religious Markets
This chapter summarizes the current state of economic research on the regulation of religious markets and suggests directions for the future. Following a discussion of the differing views of Adam Smith and David Hume on the wisdom of state support of religion, the chapter next describes the early work—mainly by sociologists—on the empirical relationship between religious pluralism and religious participation. Because of substantial flaws in the p…
Usury
Usury has a long and varied history. Originally the term referred to the charging of interest per se—that is, requiring a borrower to repay more than the principal sum borrowed from a lender. Over time borrowing and lending evolved to become an integral part of commercial life, and usury came to refer to the charging of excessive or unconscionable rates of interest on loans. The Christian church no longer opposes the charging of interest, althoug…
Poverty
The subjects of wealth and poverty are frequently and variously addressed in both the Old and the New Testaments and have been of crucial concern to Christians from the earliest days of the church down to the present day. Yet it would be seriously misleading to suggest that there is either a single or a simple Christian understanding of “poverty.” This chapter describes some of the understandings that have arisen within the Christian tradition. C…
Economic Models of Churches
The economics of religion lays aside transcendent claims of the church to study it as a social organization that uses scarce resources to achieve its ends. In contrast to the secularization models deployed by some sociologists of religion, economic models of religion tend to suggest that free markets for religious services will encourage continual entry of new organisations, steadily enriching religion. There is, however, no unified economic mode…
Anabaptist Approaches to Economics
Anabaptists have moved from a position of separatism to a call for faithful interaction with the world even if ambiguities lead to some compromises. Anabaptists can improve the secular order on the margins by joining with non-Christians who share some of their values and by providing in their businesses and consumer practices an alternative model of what faithful stewardship might look like for the Christian. For some, this is movement down a sli…
Weber, Theology, and Economics
Max Weber was neither a theologian nor an economist. He did not aspire to advocate, refine, or refute the doctrines taught in the Bible, by Augustine, Thomas, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Schleiermacher, any other major Christian thinker. Instead, he is the founder of a mode of social science that sought to account for changes and variations in economic and political attitudes, structures, and behavior in different social contexts and over time. These…
Economic Religion and Environmental Religion
The “economic religions” of the modern age, including Marxism, the American progressive-era “gospel of efficiency,” and the beliefs of the economic mainstream of the second half of the twentieth century, shared the conviction that economic progress—however it might best be achieved—would save the world. In the last decades of the twentieth century, however, economic religion was increasingly challenged by a new secular faith, “environmental relig…
Faith, Religion, and International Development
Discussion of faith, religion, and development often raises controversy, including over terminology. This chapter considers the various formal dialogues among development practitioners and faith-inspired actors, recounting the history and assessing future prospects. Ignoring or mismanaging the dialogue is likely to be costly for development, especially in some of the poorest parts of the world where faith and religion are particularly important.
Religious Labor Markets
Given the pivotal role of clergy inputs in church outputs, it is important to understand religious labor markets: how clergy are allocated to churches, how they are motivated and remunerated, and the implications of these factors for the performance of churches and denominations. Religious labor markets have particular characteristics. Like other motivated agents, clergy’s sense of call conditions their contractual and incentive structures. They …
Gender
Despite a large literature on gender in both theology and economics, economists and theologians have had little to say to each other on the subject. The intersection of economics, theology, and gender proves a fruitful one for biblical hermeneutics, however, showing the economics of gender to be intrinsically part of the biblical story of creation ideal, fall, and redemption. In the paradise of creation, absent scarcity, there is no gender differ…
Economics and Theology in Europe from the Nineteenth Century
This chapter analyzes the historical evolution of European Catholic theology and economic ideas from the turn of the nineteenth century to the late twentieth century. It focuses on the evolution of Catholic economic thought and its effort to evaluate the workings of economic life according to a definite set of religious principles, with particular attention to the attempts of building a distinctive Catholic approach to political economy (and late…
Political science (34 works) · Sociology (34 works) · Economics (33 works) · Law (33 works) · Philosophy (30 works) · Religion, Society, and Development (20 works) · Positive economics (18 works) · Epistemology (17 works) · Environmental ethics (13 works) · History (13 works)