The phrase “Christian Political Economy” comes from the historian of economics A. M. C. Waterman, and it specifically refers to Christians, often clergy such as Thomas Robert Malthus and Richard Whately, who, following in the footsteps of Adam Smith, were early practitioners of the new science of political economy from 1798 to 1833, specifically in Britain. Some, following Waterman, mark a “separation” after this period, in which the paths of Christian theology and economic science parted ways. Yet one might push back the date to the Revolution in Paris in 1848, illustrated on the cover of this issue with an anonymous painting of the burning of the throne of Louis-Philippe on February 24. The next generation of Christian social activists, again in Britain, would see renewed interest in Christian engagement with the economy, but this time through the likes of Christian socialists F. D. Maurice, J. M. Ludlow, and Charles Kingsley, whose Christian socialist brotherhood began in order to forestall in Britain the wave of revolution that swept across Europe from Paris in 1848.
Dylan Pahman, "Editorial: From Christian Political Economy to Christian Socialism," Journal of Markets & Morality 26, no. 1 (2023): 1-3