Economics and Theology

Theology and economics have long been regarded as two highly influential domains affecting human behaviour. Nowadays, the two fields are usually thought of as separate and independent from each other, although throughout most of history, this has not been the case. How the two disciplines might interrelate in terms of current understandings and applications of them is investigated here. Prevailing contemporary definitions of economics are explored first, followed by modern interpretations of theology in section two. The two fields are found to contain common aims. How examples of theologically based socio-economic analysis pursue aims similar to those of economics are outlined in section three. More detailed insight into the aims and definitions of the two fields is given in section four by exploring two instances of non-mainstream practice in economics, critical realism and personalist economics. The methodologies of each are found to contain certain similarities with that of current theologically-based approaches to socio-economic investigation.