Foundations of Personal Finance

One key to human flourishing is improved financial decision-making. At its core, decision-making rests on philosophical presuppositions or one’s worldview. A worldview is simply a conceptual arrangement by which we fit everything we believe and through which we interpret and judge reality. It is analogous to eyeglasses.

In Foundations of Personal Finance: A Christian Perspective, I seek to express reasons for the truthfulness of the Christian worldview. If the Christian worldview is true—and I believe it is—then those who embrace it will make significantly different financial decisions. Thus, we seek to establish the link between worldviews and finance. You will find here various arguments for the truthfulness of the Christian worldview.

The material presented here is taken from many sources and is just my compilation of the hard work of numerous other authors. Thus, one way to view this material is my effort to organize foundational concepts in a form that is personally useful to me—particularly in the context of personal finance. The hope is that you will also benefit from how this material is organized and gain your own insights.

Foundations of Personal Finance (January 2024)   

Foundations of Personal Finance: A Christian Perspective was taught as a thirteen week series exploring the foundations of personal finance from a Christian perspective. Based in part on this material, two YouTube interviews have been recorded as well as presentation materials produced.

A video that explores some of the connections between the Christian worldview and personal finance can be found at the YouTube channel Church for Skeptics:

Church for Skeptics: April 13, 2022 Episode

A video that explores some of the connections between the Christian worldview and inflation can be found at the YouTube channel Church for Skeptics:

Church for Skeptics: March 1, 2023 Episode

Session 1: Foundations
Video    Presentation    Presentation Handout   

Session 2: Philosophy: Logic and epistemology
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Session 3: Philosophy: Metaphysics and ethics
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Session 4: Nature of information
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Session 5: Existence of God
Video    Presentation    Presentation Handout   

Session 6: Competing worldviews
Video    Presentation    Presentation Handout   

Session 7: Naturalism, Christianity, and science
Video    Presentation    Presentation Handout   

Session 8: Problem of evil
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Session 9: The Bible as hearsay or heresy
Video    Presentation    Presentation Handout   

Session 10: The Bible as history
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Session 11: Miracles
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Session 12: The grand miracle: The resurrection of Jesus Christ
Video    Presentation    Presentation Handout   

Session 13: Loving your neighbor and apologetics
Video    Presentation    Presentation Handout