God as the Source of Wealth (original) (raw)
Melanesian Journal of Theology 3-1 (1987) 74 GOD AS THE SOURCE OF WEALTH
2015
There are no primal (or so-called “primitive”) societies which fail to celebrate their material blessings. When the animals are plentiful; when the tubers grow fat in the ground, or the maize tall and strong in the field; when the women are pregnant, and the men vital in war or negotiation, a small people has the elbow-room to be confident. It is a guarantee of self-respect if one has beasts and harvests good enough to meet one’s round of obligations, or answer the needs of a feast, and it is the fruit of a group’s identity that its members delight, shame, or frighten, out-bargain, or satisfy, its natural competitors. Wealth in primal society is group wealth. There are undeniably individuals, families, or castes more noticeably well-off, and “primitive capitalism ” can indeed exist, so that, among the Tolai of New Britain, for example, it is harder for a native rope to pass through the eye of a bone needle than for a poor man – a man who has failed to accumulate shell-money – to ent...
This paper is a theological reflection on the theology of wealth in Africa-its nature, philosophy, and sustaining factors. Through the methodology of theological reflections, the paper found out that the theology of wealth, though difficult to describe, is sustained on the African continent by economic hardship, the influence of some preachers of the theology of wealth, and the availability of improved facilities for disseminating the content of the theology of wealth. It also found out that the entire philosophy of the theology of wealth is biblically, theologically, and ethically deficient. Biblically, it adapts parts of scripture to suit its teachings. Theologically, it puts forth viewpoints that are foreign to theological thought. Ethically, it is a means of exploiting congregants. The paper concludes with a recommendation that the content and nature of the theology of wealth must be highlighted and thoroughly explained to both clergy and membership of different denominations so all will be safeguarded against the impact of this false gospel on their lives.
The Purpose and Meaning of Wealth for God's People Based on the Bible
Understanding the true purpose and meaning of wealth will influence the attitude and behavior of everyone. Therefore, the authors conducted research so that God's people understand what true wealth means for God's people and what is God's purpose in providing wealth for His people. The author uses a research method with a qualitative approach, namely the literature research method (library research) and based on Bible analysis. Based on this research, a clear description of the purpose and meaning of wealth can be generated. In this way God's people can understand what the Bible says about the purpose and meaning of this wealth, so that it will have an impact on their attitudes and behavior.
Wealth and Poverty: Christian Economic Thought
Prophecy, Piety, and Profits
This chapter explores the vast tradition of Christian economic thought on the subject of wealth and poverty. This tradition includes the scripture of the Old and New Testaments, the writings of the early Church Fathers and the medieval Scholastics, the modern Papal encyclicals, and the opinions of contemporary Christian theologians and economists. The predominant Christian position on the subject is largely derivative of the stewardship view of wealth, and its implications with respect to property, poverty, and charity.
The Journal of Biblical Integration in Business
An influential strain in recent Christian thought (Schneider 2002a) has stressed that material prosperity is a quality for human life sought by God for all people. Clearly, this objective has not been achieved. One of the reasons why the all-enveloping prosperity objective has not been reached is that its pursuit has been undertaken by down-playing God's equally-important objective of mitigating material poverty. Incompatible with God's aims, poverty persists. Via Biblical exegetes' interpretation of Jesus' sayings, this paper shows that Jesus usually speaks of the necessity to share possessions with the poor when He teaches on wealth. If assistance to the materially poor is as important as achieving prosperity in the Christian framework, implications arise for today. Final sections consider how the poor in First World countries might be identified (using the United States as the example), and how they might be helped to greater prosperity.
God or Mammon: The Danger of Wealth in the Jesus Tradition and in the Epistle of James
Anthropologie und Ethik im Frühjudentum und im Neuen Testament. Wechselseitige Wahrnehmungen: Internationales Symposium in Verbindung mit dem Projekt Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (CJHNT) 17.–20. Mai 2012, Heidelberg (ed. Matthias Konradt and Esther Schläpfer; WUNT 322), 2014
The paper addresses the challenge of wealth in the Jesus tradition and the Epistle of James within the framework of soteriology and ethics. The first part, “Equal Distribution of Wealth and God’s Championing of the Poor,” serves to introduce a tension within the Biblical tradition: God is biased in favour of the poor, but poverty is nothing desirable; suffi-ciency and affluence are desirable but wealth can become the object of suspicion and even serious criticism. This leads to the second part, “Rich and Poor in the World of Jesus,” where I engage with socio-economic models and discuss their suitability for understanding the economic situation in which Jesus and his early followers found them-selves. “The Main Addressees of Jesus’ Message,” the next section argues, are “Neither Rich nor Poor,” but are assumed to be able to provide for their own living and even to share with others some of their surpluses. Throughout the New Testament, the audiences addressed are regarded as being in a position to give something to the poor, but never described as those who receive alms or rely on any form of charity for a living. After establishing that the audience are those who have something to give, the final section considers the question “Why is it dangerous to be rich?” The answer provided is that possessions have to be seen in light of the eschatological reality of God’s kingdom which brings with it its own urgency. Care and worry about one’s possessions together with self-centredness are the main obstacles to following Jesus, entering the Kingdom of God, and thereby gaining eternal life. The danger of wealth, therefore, is that it leads one to serve the wrong master with one’s “time, attention, and devotion” and as a result to miss out on the eternal blessings in heaven for the sake of temporary pleasures on earth.