Abstract
Thanks to my book, Neither Poverty nor Riches: A Biblical Theology of Possessions, and smaller follow-up studies on related topics, I was invited twice in the last year to participate in panel discussions on economics at national conferences, once for a society of Christian economists and once for a much larger secular counterpart. In both contexts, various economists lamented that, while they tried to be very cautious in weighing in on religious or theological topics about which they knew comparatively little, it seemed to them that biblical scholars and theologians did not return the favor, making confident but simplistic pronouncements on complex economic issues that deserved much more careful study. I believe I was aware of this danger before this past year but now, as a result of these conferences, I am particularly sensitive to it and hope that I can avoid meriting a similar charge after delivering this paper.