From the Editor:

Can the insights of economic theory be brought to bear on the question of why churches grow or not? God is of course sovereign in salvation. Nevertheless Ben Cooper, in the first article in this issue, suggests some pointers from economic analysis. In particular the tendency for diverse organisations to bifurcate (into the orthodox and the heterodox) points to importance of sustained mission and careful discipleship. If Christianity and economic theory both seek to explain human behaviour, which is the more correct? If Christian economists profess to know the answer to this question, then why do they hold to two distinct systems of thought? Do we seek true understanding or merely secular explanations of economic phenomena which are compatible with Christian belief? Clive Beed, in the second article in this issue, explores the implications of this dilemma between economic theory and Christian belief, by way of a review article of the recently published volume by Andrew Britton and Peter Sedgwick. The Fall 2003 issue of Faith and Economics (the journal of our colleagues in ACE North America) is a special issue containing a collection of six papers all originall