Be Fruitful and Multiply: Why Economics is Necessary for Making God-Pleasing Decisions

by Anne Bradley

Every day we make hundreds of decisions, from what to eat for breakfast to whom we should marry. Big and small, monumental and minute, all of our choices matter to God. These everyday decisions are all part of how we steward our time, talents, and resources to the glory of God.

If our job as Christians is to honor God in everything we do and be productive with what we are given, then every decision matters. The question is, how do we make God-pleasing decisions? The economic way of thinking is an important God-given tool that helps us prudently decide how to glorify God in all the decisions we make.

In Be Fruitful and Multiply, Anne Bradley, vice president of economic initiatives for the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics, presents a powerful case for how economics complements the way God designed us. We are all economists tasked with stewarding God’s resources for his glory. Applying biblical economic principles to decision-making helps us glorify God every day.

64 pages, Paperback

Published May 7, 2016

Reviews

[Madison · Rating 2 out of 5]

“All human behavior, when analyzed deeply enough, will be found to be motivated by the desire for life and flourishing, individually and corporately.” - Jonathan Pennington

I struggled with this one. Written by Anne Bradley at the Institute of Faith, Work, and Economics, it’s supposed to be an argument that economics is necessary for human flourishing, which I wholeheartedly agree with.

However, Bradley really touts the superiority of Western economic structures over other models (i.e. communism (fair) and central planning). I think there’s some missing nuance here. Western economics (capitalism) does allow for freedom of trade and human creativity, but I hesitate to completely demonize every other economic structure, particularly since Western ideologies frequently fail to recognize cultural elements of other political, socioeconomic, and economic systems.

I also think that her writing is noticeably through an individualistic lens (using broad strokes, typical Western framework), as opposed to a communal lens (typical Eastern framework). It’s interesting that her underlying assumptions and Western perspective aren’t brought up or evaluated at all. It’s also interesting to note that the economic system Jesus entered was based on a cultural lens that highly valued the communal over the individual.

Additionally, in general, I found Bradley’s writing to be clear, yet very repetitive. Over and over, she repeats the same message that we were created to flourish by stewarding our gifts, which in turn furthers the kingdom, in every which way you can say it. I found this to water down the message rather than nail it in as I believe she intended.

For a book defending economics, it really lacked discussion of actual economics. Maybe the intent was to avoid the rabbit hole of defining which systems are good and bad & therefore the aforementioned sticky situation of deeming one economic system as the gold standard, but I really think this weakens the argument. I always have a hard time with Christians in academic fields who don’t write academically. Human-created systems reflect the values and intentions of humans to do both good and harm. I think the broad argument “for economics” feels weak to me because the theory of economics is inevitable in societies. I think the argument being more specifically “for good economic principles” and then outlining what guiding principles Christians should use to evaluate economic choices and policies would have been more effective and useful. Edit (writing this as I read it): she gets into this in the last few chapters, but I think it would’ve been helpful to start off with some of this.

I do appreciate that Bradley emphasizes that profit is not evil. Profit in our time, energy, and finances allows us freedom to reallocate our resources in the form of service. “God asks us to have leftovers…Abundance is a good thing.”

Overall, I don’t know that this is a book I’d recommend to someone looking to understand how faith and economics intersect biblically. Kingdom Calling by Amy Sherman, while it’s not an economics book at all, is the best one I can think of to recommend for exploring practically entering the world’s economic systems as a Christian. We’ll see if Wendell Berry’s writing on economics is redemptive (high hopes).