It's like having a good friend who is a devout believer in another religion. You can learn a lot from a friend like that, even if you don't pray in his church.
--Robert Shiller
Shiller's statement is about his friend Eugene Fama of the efficient-market theory, of whom Shiller is a critic.
I'm interested in the truthfulness of the analogy. I've always questioned the Fundamentalist approach to Jesus "only." Although a piece of my background was in an evangelical seminary, I'd studied Islam in the Koran and Judaism. The bias to apologetics, a defensive of the so-called Christian gospel, was pervasive. But from today's perspective, it's clear I didn't really move beyond that stupid bias until June of 1987 when youngest graduated from Barnard College. Like the dutiful "religious" that I was at that time, my wife and I attended the Columbia University baccalaureate service.
I don't remember who spoke, probably a college chaplain. But I do remember the readings by three students. One was a Muslim from the Koran, another a Jew from the Old Testament and the third a Christian from the New Testament. They all read what was essentially the same text with the same message, but from their own scripture.
I wasn't especially surprised, but I saw the similarities of the great faiths laid out in front of me. Growing up in the Detroit area, I was rather open to ethnic diversity, but hadn't stared as closely at religious diversity and had no Muslim friends. Thankfully, the world--and my world--has changed drastically since then. It has become all the more obvious that the trajectory of the biblical tradition is in the direction of inclusion. I celebrate that fact.
So Gene Fama and Bob Shiller have a lot more in common that most might think. "He collects data and he shares it and I use it all the time, and I use many of his theories. Not all of them, of course, but he's a very good guy."