The Economy and Eternity

The Economics of the Parables,
by Robert Sirico
(Regnery Gateway, 256 pp., $26.99)

D efenders of a free-enterprise system have too often had a disappointing relationship with the faith community. Christian theology provides the basic anthropology that both reveals and promotes the tenets of market economy (human creativity, justice in exchange, individuality, division of labor, etc.), and yet the modern church (in both Catholic and Protestant traditions) often sounds more like a woke-progressive bumper sticker than it does a prophet of biblical truth and teaching.

An exception to this sad rule is the Acton Institute, an ecumenical think tank co-founded by Father Robert Sirico more than three decades ago, committed to a study of religion, liberty, and markets. Consistent with Acton’s mission of promoting a free and virtuous society, Sirico has penned a new book examining the economic lessons of the New Testament parables. The book is all at once theological, exegetical, devotional, and yes, potently economic.

Sirico preemptively addresses the one criticism sure to be thrown at this effort by careless critics — he never claims that the primary message of the parables he cites is intended to be economic. He explains that the parables offer moral and spiritual lessons that are primary, yet they offer “fundamental truths about the economic dimension of life that remain unchanged.” He is up front about the fact that “economics as a scientific or intellectual discipline did not even exist in Jesus’ time.” And yet, because the parables teach us “how we can derive transcendent lessons from the context of our everyday lives,” they inevitably provide an economic message that is relevant to our modern mission. This work speaks to those who have been yearning for a more Burkean synthesis of market reality and the prioritization of character; it aims to bring the very teachings of Jesus to the forefront, incorporating economic context into what we know of human endeavor. Sirico wisely reminds us that “facts alone do not satisfy human longing; rather, it is the meaning behind those facts that people seek.”

Sirico takes us through 13 New Testament parables, carefully avoiding the temptation of eisegesis and politicization. He writes with a pastoral heart and ministerial mind, constantly reaffirming the practical theology in the stories, all while demonstrating key economic assumptions that permeate the texts. Readers learn a great deal in seeing the economic assertions the parables take for granted: that trade is not zero-sum, that individuals subjectively value things, that in market transactions we engage in human relationships and have attendant responsibilities to them, that commerce is a necessary and vital part of life, that a lack of private ownership results in chaos, etc. “Jesus assumes the insights that come from economic reality,” Sirico demonstrates.

So much of the modern Evangelical and Romanist aversion to markets is rooted in a false sense of justice and fairness that is thoroughly discredited by a proper understanding of the parable messages. A huge theme in Sirico’s writing is that where the parables refer to “mercy” and “favor,” they first presuppose justice and charity. Charitable giving is only charitable because the recipient of the charity was not first entitled to such generosity; if it were an entitled right, it would be neither charitable nor generous. A biblical spirit of generosity presupposes rule of law, market exchange, private property, contractual obligation, and then builds on these with exhortations of volunteerist philanthropy. Time and time again, Sirico uses the parables to demonstrate the biblical teaching that true charity is non-coercive. The redistributionist finds no exegetical support in the parables.

It should be noted that the 40-page Afterword is, itself, worth the price of the book. After an inspiring extrapolation of what the 13 parables teach in matters of human interaction, conscience, and exchange, Sirico develops a powerful counterargument to the redistributionist phariseeism so common in today’s pulpits. He walks through chapter and verse of the cherry-picked, poorly interpreted texts often used as proof cases to oppose markets, mobility, and aspiration, and he redirects the reader to the real message of the texts — the serious warning against idolatrous reliance on wealth. Rather than throw the baby out with the bathwater, Sirico demonstrates the impossibility of “equal ownership” in the “reality of scarcity,” and challenges us to the actual biblical demand for cultivation, production, creativity, order, beauty, and growth.

Even those who’ve never read the parables and seen how they focus on growth, stewardship, responsibility, and managing scarcity will find an illuminated understanding of the parables in Sirico’s book. “The world of the parables is not a world of scarcity, but a world where there is the promise of abundance under the right conditions.” The book is convicting, thorough, and well-written, and offers a deeper appreciation of biblical truth than can be found in contemporary ecclesial attempts to do economics.

And for all of Sirico’s diligent and cogent exegesis, he never loses sight of the ultimate economic reality: “Even the greatest estate is minute when seen against the backdrop of eternity.”