Christian Perspectives on the Market*

This paper analyses the economic ethics of three main Christian traditions in Europe: the Roman Catholic tradition, the Evangelical tradition and the Ecumenical tradition. After defining several common and divergent elements of these different Christian traditions, we analyse the shortcomings of the free market operation concerning two common Christian values: the priority of the poor and stew-ardship of creation. We conclude that, because of these shortcomings, the Christian traditions will only provide conditional support to the free market