Preliminarii la o economie biblică

Preliminaries to a Biblical Economy

Abstract

Scripture teaches us that God is the source of all sciences (Eccl. 2:26). We might argue that in biblical texts, the term "science" may refer to what we would call "consciousness" or "knowledge" today, of a practical and spiritual nature. Also, it may have negative overtones at times, denoting speculative or mystical knowledge. In other words, positively it may incorporate concepts such as skill, experience, philosophy etc. However, the statement above does not affect the meaning Solomon has given this concept in his teachings. Compared to the perfection of God, science can offer man only a limited amount of knowledge (Job 37:16, Ps. 139:6,1 Cor. 13:9). Yet, science is not limited only to enrich one’s cognitional database. Rather, it has also practical value for its owner (Pr. 8:9, Eccl. 7:12). But this practical value cannot be seen apart from God and His divine attributes. This is to say that science without God has no value in itself, and it may even be dangerous (Is. 47:10, Jer. 10:8, 1 Cor. 13:2). Having these premises, we have carried out the present research, whose main purpose is to argue for the compatibility of the conceptual binomial of religion and economics, and thus to show the legitimacy of harmonising the fundamentals of economics with biblical statements.