Does Economics Need an Infusion of Religious or Quasi-Religious Formulations? A Symposium Prologue

This piece is a prologue to a symposium, cosponsored by the Acton Institute, that asks its contributors: Does professional economics need enrichment by religious or quasi-religious thinking? Many common criticisms of professional economics propose the incorporation of richer concepts and formulations, ones that can be described as religious or quasi-religious. If such richer concepts are worth incorporating, does that necessarily bring theism or religiosity into the economists’ discourse? The prologue asks whether mainstream economics tends to preclude religious or quasi-religious understandings, whether that is a bad thing, and about the relationship between such understandings and religious faith.