Sovereignty & Dominion: An Economic Commentary on Genesis (2 vols.)
Sovereignty & Dominion: An Economic Commentary on Genesis (2 vols.)
Does the Bible has anything to say about economics?
The answers to this question within and without the church have varied greatly over the last one century. On one hand, we have those who have retreated to making the Bible irrelevant to life by claiming that it’s “only about the gospel,” barring it from ever speaking on any practical issue in God’s world; as if God created the world but never gave mankind any knowledge of how to live productively in it. On the other hand are those who are quick to agree that the Bible does speak about economics (and politics, and education, and science, etc.), but then only look in it for isolated verses that seem to support their particular political and economic theories, whether left or right. Neither side is willing to go to the Bible as the primary source of all relevant and practical knowledge. Neither side is ready to humble themselves and take the Word of God as the beginning of all knowledge. And certainly, neither side is willing to let the Bible present systematic, comprehensive ideology and practice of how men and their cultures should go about being productive long term.
This is where Gary North comes in with his startling idea: The Bible does speak about economics, and it speaks about it in a consistent, systematic way. So consistent and systematic that, on the basis of it, we can build a whole self-sufficient system of economic knowledge and praxis that is not only very different from anything non-Biblical systems can offer. It will be different, and it will also be the only one that can bring long-term prosperity. Because, if the Bible is true about everything else, it will be true about economics. In fact, over the centuries, Christian men have grasped bits and pieces of that economic knowledge in the Bible, and every time they applied them in practice, they were successful. It’s time for more than bits and pieces. It’s time for a systematic economic theory based on the Bible.
Sovereignty and Dominion lays the foundation for understanding the economics of the Bible. The Bible is a covenantal document. Economics, and all human economic action is entirely predicated by the nature of God as the Creator of the world and of man, and the nature of man and his world as a creation of God. God first reveals Himself to us as a working God, as a God who produces new value, and then commands man to work and produce new value. In that covenant of work is the beginning of all economic knowledge and all economic practice. Sovereignty and Dominion extracts all that economic meaning from the first book of the Word of God, and lays the foundation for a Biblical theory of economics.
682 pages with Scripture index, paperbacks.