Robinson, Jeffrey

Liberty University Digital Commons

Graduate Research Symposium Proposal Instructions and Template Posters and Presentations  Research Symposium Proposals will need to be submitted via the “Submit Proposal” link on the Digital Commons page by Friday, October 9 by 11:59pm (ET).    Research Proposal Instructions Write a concise summary of the key points of your research. (Do not indent.) Your proposal should contain a strong literature review or introduction to your research topic, hypothesis or research questions, methods, results, and conclusions. You should also include possible implications of your research and future work you see connected with your findings. Your abstract should be a single paragraph double-spaced. Your abstract should be between 250 and 400 words.    When submitting your proposal, please use the template (proposal sample) provided below.    Proposal Sample Title - Anthropology and Economics: How sound economic policy reflects biblical anthropology Program of Study – PhD in Apologetics Presentation Type – PowerPoint Mentor(s) - Dr. David Baggett Student name(s) – Jeffrey Robinson  This presentation examines the relationship between a biblical anthropology and sound economic policy. It analyzes Christian care for the poor in relation to an entitlement mentality. Properly defined, an entitlement mentality is a refusal to provide for oneself or one’s family combined with the expectation of receiving financial support from others. A biblically sound economic policy does not reward vice. Rather, it upholds justice for those who refuse to work. This paper will also offer an examination of how a biblically sound economic policy should address those unable to care for themselves. According to the New Testament, the early church cared for its poor by placing care for widows and orphans at the highest strata of religious virtue. However, even this was carried out with exceptions. A biblically sound economic policy recognizes the economic impact of immorality as it relates to poverty. In order to restrain human depravity, economic policy should first recognize human depravity and establish reasonable restraints against it while maintaining room for human freedom. Such is the tension in formulating a biblically grounded economic policy. Central to this idea is placing a high priority on care for the poor by differentiating those poor by circumstances (the majority of Jesus’s hearers), and poor by choice. Circumstances include highly predatory taxation systems, despotic regimes, religious persecution, and dysfunctional bureaucracies. Choices include gluttony (neglecting physical health), laziness (neglecting basic self-discipline), immorality (disregarding biblical morality), self-indulgence (pursuing unnecessary luxuries), and economic naivety (neglecting basic financial principles). Yet Christians should act in mercy and generosity with their personal finances while extolling virtue through actively meeting the needs of the circumstantially poor, rejecting covetous class-warfare, rejecting an entitlement mentality, and extolling diligence. In addition, Christians should advocate the principles of Proverbs by encouraging diligence, thrift, resourcefulness, and virtue while eschewing unnecessary debt. In conclusion, this presentation will evaluate economic policy with the following criteria: First, does this policy recognize personal property rights? Without property rights, the poor are shut out of the free market system and the global economy. Second, does this policy encourage or discourage personal responsibility? Third, does this policy oppress the circumstantially poor?  

Anthropology and Economics: How sound economic policy reflects biblical anthropology

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