Issue 17: Economics

Christopher J. H. Wright

Saints in the Marketplace: A Biblical Perspective on the World of Work

Contrary to the pervasive “sacred-secular” dichotomy that infects many Christians’ view of the world of “ordinary” work, the Bible has a comprehensive and positive understanding of God’s involvement in the public arena, from creation to new creation, providing perspectives that should govern our ethical, missional, and pastoral engagement with it.

Christopher J. H. Wright

The “Righteous Rich” in the Old Testament

The Old Testament recognizes that riches can be gained through wickedness and oppression, but it also teaches and exemplifies that those to whom God grants more than ordinary wealth can and should make use of it in ways that are righteous before God, both in attitude and in practice.

Scott Bader-Saye

Flirting with Money

This essay asks, “What is money for?” and, in light of the current banking crisis, proposes that lending and borrowing can and should be ordered to the common good.

Amy McCann

Marrow

In “Marrow,” Amy McCann finds something sinister in the supposed comfort and beauty of a late summer evening, the birds roosting at dusk “something to nerve to.”

D. S. Martin

Extrapolations

D. S. Martin’s “Extrapolations” considers what lies beyond our immediate perceptions and wonders if unseen wonder lies beneath the surface of our landscapes.

Brian J. Walsh

Screwing with Idols: A Targum (Romans 1:16-32)

In this targum of Romans 1:16-32, Brian J. Walsh offers a creative and contemporary interpretation of a portion of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Christian community in Rome.

Bob Goudzwaard, Mark Vander Vennen

Global Problems: The Lost Dimension

In this essay, Bob Goudzwaard and Mark Vander Vennen argue that genuine solutions to today’s interlocking global crises—the financial crisis, global poverty, the environmental crisis, the security crisis—lie in understanding the purpose of life beyond Western society’s commitment to unending material, economic, and technological progress.

Richard Schiffman

Hope (A Zen Perspective)

A poem about having hope for now, not “an appetite for this or that concocted future.”

Heather Smith Stringer, Scott Strazzante

Common Ground: Symmetries of Land and Culture after Economic Change

In this photo exhibit, Scott Strazzante juxtaposes images from a cattle-ranching family and a family living in a subdevelopment several years later on the same land to reveal the differences, complexities, and similarities between farm life and suburbia life.

Daniel B. Gallagher

Love and Hope in Benedict XVI’s Vision for Human Development

Read within the context of his first two encyclicals, DEUS CARITAS EST and SPE SALVI, Pope Benedict XVI’s third encyclical, CARITAS IN VERITATE, presents a unified philosophical and theological vision that grounds authentic human development in the fundamental Christian virtues of hope and love.

Edward R. Brown

A Tale of Two Cities

Dubai and Nairobi represent two ends of the poverty/wealth spectrum, but which one is really wealthy?

Mark Russell

The Advent Conspiracy: An Interview with Josh Butler

In this interview, Josh Butler describes his work with the Advent Conspiracy, an organization that challenges popular consumerist responses to Christmas and seeks to recapture that sense that there is something prophetic and countercultural about Christmas, that a different kingdom is being celebrated when we celebrate the birth of Jesus.