A blog for questions and comments relevant to essays posted on The Worden Report. Please be concise and on topic, without being insulting of other persons or positions, or unduly self-promoting.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Godliness & Greed: Shifting Christian Thought on Profit and Wealth
I've obviously not read your book, so this might be a tangent, but I'm interested in how the church behaves as an institution and how it can incubate 'good' as well as 'bad' behaviour - and how, particularly with regard to wealth, behaviour which seems totally at odds with the gospels can be.. well, celebrated.
I'm wondering if it has something to do with this notion of 'God's blessing', which seems to have entered the conversation as shorthand to explain our riches/health/education/relationships etc. In my experience, this is more subconscious than conscious 'prosperity-gospel' style teaching.
Thanks for your comment. I think you are on to something in that God's blessing being a more subtle in celebrating wealth than is the prosperity gospel. In Augustine's early writings, he points to the good in creation because it is God's creation. That paradigm allows for wealth because it is thus created by God too. In Augustine's later writings (after 332 CE I think), he stressed original sin and the depravity of the world from the fall from grace. Wealth doesn't fare so well under that paradigm. My point is that both paradigms have been dominant in the history of Christian thought.
I've obviously not read your book, so this might be a tangent, but I'm interested in how the church behaves as an institution and how it can incubate 'good' as well as 'bad' behaviour - and how, particularly with regard to wealth, behaviour which seems totally at odds with the gospels can be.. well, celebrated.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if it has something to do with this notion of 'God's blessing', which seems to have entered the conversation as shorthand to explain our riches/health/education/relationships etc. In my experience, this is more subconscious than conscious 'prosperity-gospel' style teaching.
Thanks for your comment. I think you are on to something in that God's blessing being a more subtle in celebrating wealth than is the prosperity gospel. In Augustine's early writings, he points to the good in creation because it is God's creation. That paradigm allows for wealth because it is thus created by God too. In Augustine's later writings (after 332 CE I think), he stressed original sin and the depravity of the world from the fall from grace. Wealth doesn't fare so well under that paradigm. My point is that both paradigms have been dominant in the history of Christian thought.
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