Abstract

This essay proposes the formulation of a metaparadigm encompassing three major aspects of economic science: positive, normative, and applied. Such a metaparadigm represents a broader conceptual framework within which existing paradigms can be placed as special cases for comparative evaluation. The historical development of religions and their influence on economies and economics are legitimate areas of inquiry for positive economics. Yet the Mecca of the religion-based schools of economics is within a normative metaparadigm. Though Christian economics has not attained thus far the status of positive economics, the means to attain this objective are studied within the applied aspect of the proposed metaparadigm.