by Staff
May 2009
Archbishop Johnson was invited to present a paper on his work dealing with the interrelation between religion and economics at the Trans-Sea and East Asia Finance and Economics Conference in Suzhou, China. The conference was hosted by and held at Suzhou University. The modern flavor, global feel, and economic well-being of Suzhou made the location ideal for this conference, the primary topic of which was the current global economic crisis. Many scholars from China, Taiwan, and Korea attended to discuss their views and present their research that might give insight into the economic crisis and how to solve the problem. Dr. Johnson was the only representative of the United States (or any western country).
+Johnson's presentation, which was of research still underway, began with a treatment of the potential psychological effects that religion and turning away from religion might have on consumer behavior. Included in this was the approximate doubling of wealth in the United States in the past 50 years, but also a marked decline in church attendance. The presentation further included Christian theology dealing with wealth and its potential to do both good and evil.
It was suggested that there is a theoretical amount of wealth inherent to each individual past which that individual will behave financially and socially irresponsibly. For any given individual, this amount might be so high, that it can effectively never be reached. If a sufficiently large portion of a population reaches this level inherent to them and goes from responsible to irresponsible, it is possible that this can contribute to economic problems on a wide-reaching scale.
