Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- General Editor's preface
- Preface
- PART I THE NATURE AND DYNAMICS OF ECONOMIC COMPULSION
- PART II SETTING THE MORAL BASELINE AND SHAPING EXPECTATIONS
- 3 Economic security as God's twofold gift
- 4 Retrieving the biblical principle of restoration
- PART III CONTEMPORARY APPROPRIATION
- References
- Index
3 - Economic security as God's twofold gift
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- General Editor's preface
- Preface
- PART I THE NATURE AND DYNAMICS OF ECONOMIC COMPULSION
- PART II SETTING THE MORAL BASELINE AND SHAPING EXPECTATIONS
- 3 Economic security as God's twofold gift
- 4 Retrieving the biblical principle of restoration
- PART III CONTEMPORARY APPROPRIATION
- References
- Index
Summary
The preceding chapters examined the nature and dynamics of the economic compulsion precipitated by the adverse unintended ripple effects of the market. Is economic distress morally significant? If so, why? Christian ethics has much to contribute to answering these questions.
This chapter argues that economic compulsion ought to concern Christians because it goes against God's proffered gift of economic security and is prima facie evidence that we, both as individuals and as a community, have not lived up to the obligations attendant on such a benefaction. Economic security is a twofold gift because God not only supplies our needs but also uses our mutual responsibility for each other as a channel for bestowing such provisions on us. In other words, God provides for us through each other; God elicits human participation in effecting divine providence. This initiative is yet another unmerited divine favor.
Within Christian ethics, I submit that the divine gift of economic security could be defined as (1) access to the requisite goods of life (2) within the nurturing care and support of the community, and (3) through the individual's own efforts, to the extent possible. Privation in any of these three constitutive elements is sufficient to give rise to economic distress. Failure in the first condition means a deprivation of basic needs essential to survival and health. Disorder in the second requirement reveals a collective inability to live up to duties of mutual assistance. Deficiency in the third reflects a state of chronic dependence.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Economic Compulsion and Christian Ethics , pp. 77 - 110Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005