The article series titled “The Bible and Free Enterprise” and the related six-session Bible study series titled “Principles of Economic Liberty: the Biblical Case for Free Enterprise” use following paragraph from an article by the late Dr. Ronald Nash as a “map” for exploring the free enterprise system. Dr. Nash observed,
Capitalism is not economic anarchy. It recognizes several necessary conditions for the kinds of voluntary relationships it recommends. One of these presuppositions is the existence of inherent human rights, such as the right to make decisions, the right to be free, the right to hold property, and the right to exchange what one owns for something else. Capitalism also presupposes a system of morality. Capitalism should be thought of as a system of voluntary relationships within a framework of laws which protect peoples’ rights against force, fraud, theft, and violations of contracts. “Thou shalt not steal” and “Thou shalt not lie” are part of the underlying moral constraints of the system. Economic exchanges can hardly be voluntary if one participant is coerced, deceived, defrauded, or robbed.
A PDF file of the above graphic is available here.
About Dr. Nash
For 27 years, Dr. Ronald Nash (1936-2006) was the Chairman of the Department of Philosophy and Religion and Director of Graduate Studies in Humanities at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. Dr. Nash was not only a brilliant theologian but also an astute cultural observer.
Additional background information on Dr. Nash:
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- From 1991 to 2002, he served as Professor of Philosophy and Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida.
- Nash also was Professor of Philosophy at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, from 1998-2005.
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In 1985, Hillsdale College’s publication Imprimis (Imprimis means ‘in the first place”) carried a speech/article by Dr. Nash titled “Socialism, Capitalism, and the Bible.” The article was reproduced with Nash’s permission on the Summit Ministries website. (Summit Ministries exists “to equip and support rising generations to embrace God’s truth and champion a biblical worldview.”)
image credit: Dr. Ronald Nash
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