经济系

I am grateful and fortunate to have studied economics at Benedictine College. In addition to learning the fundamental theories that are essential to a degree in economics, my education has been informed by a Christian perspective. In the first year or two of undergraduate study, I leaned strongly toward a free market, 芝加哥学派的偏见. I subscribed to the general belief that anyone can prosper if they just work hard enough. I worked hard and I thought that I should be able to reap the resulting rewards. It was unjust, I believed, for anyone to interfere with my right to the material benefits of my work. I believed that a situation in which everyone pursues his or her self-interest will produce prosperity for all members of society.

逐渐, with the help of thoughtful questions and discussions in classes, I became aware that my perspective was focused only on one aspect of the person. The recurrent themes of my beliefs were autonomy, individualism and self-interest. Rather than seeing society as a community of human persons, my image had been distorted into that of a group of material bodies. Professors Coronado and Harris teach economics from a Christian perspective, 这是, with constant recognition of the dignity of every human being. Studying under them has led me to reconsider the way that economics fits into the. 人类存在的终极终结. In addition to focusing on maximizing utility, efficiency or material living standards, we must consider the effects of economic activity on human beings as persons. For human beings are more than material individuals, more than modes of production and consumption. There is an immaterial, eternal aspect of the person that demands respect, rights and even love. The economics department and philosophy departments at Benedictine College were instrumental in bringing this truth to light, and has thus enriched my view of economics with a more complete view of the human person in the Imago Dei.

克里斯·迈耶2006