Category: Series: Theology and Economics
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Theology and Economics: Conclusion and Index
On February 15 of this year, I began this series on Theology and Economics. I wrote in that first post: Over the coming days I am going to layout a rudimentary theology of economics and the causes of prosperity. I will tap into the biblical narrative to see what scripture has to say to us.…
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Theology and Economics: The Answer to Poverty is Stewardship
I closed the last post by writing: Therefore, the challenge is how to incentivize those who are most capable of creating wealth while steadily incorporating those in the bottom strata of the economy into becoming productive participants in growing prosperity. Directly tied to both of these is the need to inculcate a vision of stewardship…
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Theology and Economics: The Relative Poverty Conundrum
Excluding hunting and gathering societies, and nomadic societies, most populations throughout history have had a similar distribution of wealth. There are very few people with enormous wealth, a few more people with wealth greater than that of ninety percent of the population, and eighty or ninety percent of the population that lives at or near…
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Theology and Economics: Missing Resources and Poverty
There is considerable mobility in economic status (up and down) in the United States. Only a small percentage of people stay in poverty over lengthy periods. We know from the study I cited in the previous post that over four years, only 2% of people were in poverty every month over a four-year period. About…
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Theology and Economics: The Question of Relative Poverty
Two posts ago, I wrote: Relative poverty is based on a statistical distribution. Theoretically, we could place the amount of wealth each person or family has on a continuum. Then we decide that people who are below some percentage cutoff line on the continuum (5%? 10%? 20%?) are in poverty. The only way poverty is…
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Theology and Economics: Making Stewards of the Absolute Poor
The idea of steward (oikonomos, "household manager") means control over resources by a steward. It is not ultimate control. It is control subject to the will of the one who appointed the steward in the first place. But it is control that is relatively free from interference by other persons or entities. Otherwise, the steward…
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Theology and Economics: Two Kinds of Poverty
Yesterday I wrote: Prosperity is about the amount of wealth and resources that can be generated and sustained over a lengthy period. Prosperity comes from the dynamic interplay between a set of human resources, values, and social institutions. Coming from a biblical understanding that God wants all God's people to participate in creation stewardship and…
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Theology and Economics: Prosperity
Back on May 18, I wrote the following: I began this series noting that poverty is the natural human state of affairs. When we ask “What causes poverty?” the answer is “Being born.” We all come into the world owning nothing. The fact is that most people in most cultures throughout most of history have…
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Theology and Economics: Climate Change (Part 3)
The answer to an anthropocentric view of the environment (humans are all that matter) is not a biocentric view of the environment (nature reigns supreme.) We need a theocentric view in which humanity is the steward of God's resources regarding the material world and socio-cultural creations. This was the gist of my last post. So…
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Theology and Economics: Climate Change (Part 2)
What is an appropriate Christian response to climate change? My response would be to do very little about climate change. I think it is mostly a lot of hot air. (*grin*) Instead of addressing global warming, I think we should be about finding more efficient and cost-effective ways to reduce pollution and CO2 emissions and…