In Rodney Stark’s very fine book, The Victory of Reason, he notes a problem with using the word “capitalism” in discussions of economics. He says capitalism “is very difficult to define, having originated not as an economic concept but as a pejorative term first used by nineteenth century leftists to condemn wealth and privilege. Adapting the term for serious analysis is a bit like trying to make a social scientific concept out of ‘reactionary pig” (p. 55). Nonetheless, despite this difficulty, Stark accurately summarizes three essential elements of capitalism.
They are: 1. Free markets; 2. Secure property rights; and 3. Free labor. When those who have goods to sell, and those who seek goods to buy, are free to seek one another out to arrange for a price and transaction without the interference of third parties, particularly from the government, we have a free market. When men and women are secure in their ownership of property — and can predict with relative accuracy what will be still theirs five years from now, a secure foundation for economic cooperation is laid. But if ownership is up for grabs every time the legislature is in session, then economic investment is stifled. And if those who have labor to sell are free to do so, and are free to leave when the terms of their (free) engagement are up, we have the third leg of the stool.
We should therefore want free, untrammeled markets. We should want free, untrammeled property. We should want free, untrammeled labor. And we can’t have any of these three apart from free grace. Societies that do not have the freedom Christ brings cannot have other subsidiary freedoms — because Christ brings them all.