Christianity and Capitalism

In the debate going on over capitalism and socialism, I would like to add a little historical perspective. Capitalism and Christianity have not grown up together as siamese twins. The Bible and in particular the NT makes it clear that the community is responsible for ensuring the good of all of its members. That is obvious in the Torah and the prophets, and it is obvious in the teachings of Jesus. Luke's description of the beginning Christian community in Acts is of one in which all pool their resources and share equally (see Acts 2:43-45; 4:33-36, a description of the Reign of God brought to reality that even Karl Marx would agree with). Jesus was a revolutionary in the eyes of the ruling and wealthy classes of his day that exploited the poor and dispossessed; his aim was to make the Torah/prophetic declarations a reality--the Kingdom of God, and that was threatening to the powers that be.

"As the earth is the Lord's and everything in it," it was and is the biblical message that all that any believer possesses is held in trust from God and is responsible to God for it, and God makes it clear through revelation that the accumulation of wealth in and of itself is an evil. Jesus put it in the bluntest and most upsetting terms: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." In reading and teaching the gospels I've come to realize that the only sins that Jesus explicitly condemnes are hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and the accumulation of riches.

The early church fathers and their medieval successors had some strong words to say about private property and they weren't positive. As early as Augustine of Hippo, they taught that lust for power and greed are the twin offsprings of the original sin of disobedience. Cain, they said, was the first human being to appropriate property and make it his own. The lending of money at interest was condemned (which is why medieval Christian kings borrowed from Jewish moneylenders), and this prohibition was not changed until the later Middle Ages, as the new economic system we would come to call capitalism emerged.

I do not think that Christianity favors any particular economic system that has historically been tried, and it sits in judgment against all of them, for all of them fall short of the glory of God, and the teachings of Scripture. I think it is a mistake to insist that the economic systems we have experienced in our lifetimes should be baptized, confirmed and ordained. Perhaps, as economist Kenneth Boulding has written, some third way will emerge that incorporates the better elements of both socialism and capitalism (if we can get past the polemics about either), and may take our flawed systems closer to the biblical pattern.

I write this with some hesitation in that I think the subject matter may be veering away from our focus, though I guess one can call economics a social science.

My wife is reading Lerner's book and I look forward to hearing from her what he has to say about this. For a Christian view I recommend Ched Myers little book, "Sabbath Economics." It will give you another view of a lot of things in the Bible about economy and community we tend to spiritualize and thus dismiss.

Bob Schneider
Received on Tue Mar 7 07:58:44 2006