HOW CAN YOU BE A CHRISTIAN AND AN ECONOMIST? THE MEANING OF THE ACCRA DECLARATION FOR TODAY

Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP02/2010
Publication date: 2010
Author(s):
Abstract:

The Accra Declaration offers a narrowly ideological interpretation of the modern economy and proceeds to reject neoliberalism as the ideological foundation thereof. This article argues for a less ideological approach to public theology in its comment on the economy in a two-step argument. Firstly, Neoliberalsim is neither a coherent ideology nor a plausible historical narrative. Economists, who are the presumed architects of neoliberalism do not recognise the propositions attributed to them by either the Accra Declaration or the critical literature on Neoliberalism. Secondly, the Accra Declaration’s ideological framework causes it to misrepresent both the nature of modern economies and their objective results. An alternative, less ideological approach, would allow the Church to appreciate both the strengths and the many problems of market economies and would allow it to work with economists in resolving these, instead of rejecting the insights of modern economics.

JEL Classification:

Z12

Keywords:

Accra declaration, Neoliberalism, Economics, Public theology, Market economies

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