ABSTRACT
In a startling move of iconic signifi cance, the University of Chicago Economics Department recently bought a Christian seminary. The stately spire that once belonged to the Chicago Theological Seminary will soon announce the home of the Milton Friedman Institute for Research in Economics1. Piercing the heavens less than a hundred yards away, the University of Chicago’s Rockefeller Memorial Chapel rises in its grandeur over the Booth School of Business. In this American Titan’s chapel, the University posthumously honored the life of Milton Friedman, and one of Friedman’s teachers, George Stigler, posed in the pulpit for the cover of his book The Economist as Preacher2. At the University of Chicago, religion and economics have long had an intimate relationship. Chicago’s economists, led by minds like Friedman and Stigler, shape commercial and political life throughout the world with their unique combination of economic analysis and religious fervor. They preach a gospel of effi ciency rooted in the work of their honored ‘church father’ Adam Smith3.
