Any appeals that rely strictly on using the Tao Te Ching as an authoritative source will not appeal to me. Books that use a quote from the Tao, and explain how that quote illustrates good financial practice are fine.

Many good personal finance bloggers follow this approach at time (commonly substituting the Bible for the Tao) are helpful. Lists of quotes a la Justin may or may not be true, but they are not helpful.

OK, let’s try that. Pick up your favorite personal finance book and a Sharpie. Now, black out all of the references to the wisdom of thrift, the wisdom of saving, the wisdom of giving to charity, the wisdom of budgeting, the wisdom of investing, the wisdom of investing in the right things, the wisdom of maintaining your property, the wisdom of learning from your mistakes, the danger of going into debt, the danger of wanting to keep up with the Joneses, the danger of lending money to someone, the wisdom of hard work, the perils of divorce, the perils of lawsuits, and the wisdom of seeking counsel from various sources.

How much of your favorite personal finance book can you read now? If there’s much of it left, it probably isn’t very good, is it?

“But wait,” you protest. “I just wanted to remove the references to scripture in the book, not the ideas.” The Bible probably predates your favorite personal finance book by about 1900 years (unless your favorite personal finance book is the Qur’an, in which case it’s only a few hundred years) and you want to cite it without reference? Isn’t that plagiarism?

@GLBL and mbhunter:
I’m not sure whether or not this was Trent’s point, but if a personal finance book doesn’t stand up once you remove the Bible references, then it’s probably not a very helpful book. Whether it can be a true book is neither here nor there – I also require helpfulness in my pf books.

I also don’t think that people should be afraid of sharing their faith and what it has done for them. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, and especially when you have a relationship with someone, it can be better received – as opposed to just going up to random people and telling them how sinful they are. That hardly ever works well, understandably.

It’s really sad, because there are tremendous lessons that Christianty teaches that get absolutely destroyed by overzealous evangelical people.

And the same can be said for atheist/agnostic folks, too — it would be nice if everyone could quietly co-exist with other people’s faith choices.

Are there Christian finance books that are badly written, or aren’t very good? Of course. Are there badly written non-Christian finance books? Absolutely!

I also think that its a bit simplistic to say that “Christian themes are acceptable – and even welcomed – when they support a personal finance argument that makes sense on its own.”

I don’t think that everything we do with our money needs to make 100% financial sense. For example – giving. Our Christian faith says that we should give to the poor and those less fortunate than us. Does this make sense financially? Not really – we’re giving our hard earned money away! Does it make sense when squared with our faith? Yes. (I’m sure non-Christians could make a case for giving as well).

Even with those few things that may not seem to make personal finance sense, most of the verses I read about money in the Bible DO make a ton of sense. Some of the major themes about money in the bible include how borrowing money can weigh you down, how making a financial plan can aid you in being successful, the necessity of having integrity in your financial dealings and how money can’t buy you happiness and contentment. Those things just make sense regardless of your faith!

Here’s a great post on one of the Christian Finance blogs listing out verses in the bible about money. You’ll find that most of them are just good common sense, even if you aren’t a Christian!

@DivaJean – i’m sorry if some folks were saying it wasn’t right to give aid to those on the streets. I don’t think most Christians think that way. I do believe in helping encourage people to do well on their own as well – but giving them a helping hand when they’re down is to be commended.

I once got into a a heated discussion about whether it was right to give clothing, food, and/or money to a beggar on the street.

All the “Christians” on the hater blog believed that doing anything was a waste of my money- be it buying a homeless person a meal, giving food or directing them to a soup kitchen, directing them to free clothing (or giving them clothes myself), or giving money.

That said it all to me.

Earn all you can (through honest, industrious work of course)

Save all you can: Jesus tells us to live simply and to not worry much about earthly possessions, fine foods, extravagant living etc.

Give all you can: Charity is a big part of the Christian faith and we should help whenever possible.

One point that does bother me though Trent. Your wrote: “On the other hand, if you attempt to make a personal finance argument using Christianity as the sole backbone, you’re likely to fail. Why? Money does not operate by the same rules that many aspects of life do. You can’t simply apply the rules of common sense and good moral judgment to financial issues and expect immediate success.”

As you should know, to a Christian the Bible is the Word of God, written by God through the hand of men. Thus any financial advice that is backed up by scripture is thus backed up by God’s word. No other backbone is needed. The book of Psalms is chock full of personal finance advice and given it’s included in the Bible, I’d say your argument of “you can’t apply the rules of common sense and good moral judgment” is just plain wrong.

Trent, don’t sacrifice your beliefs or faith for fear of your reader’s reaction. Peter did this and couldn’t live with himself.

@Plonkee – You said: “I think that the problem with Christian themed anything is that they assume that all readers are Christian and that Christianity is self-evident.”

If the book took a chapter or two to explain Christianity, would that make you more inclined to read it? I’m guessing not, and most likely would make you close it even quicker. Christian books are for an intended audience, and if you want to understand Christianity got to the source and read the Bible.