Review of Money and Possessions by Walter Brueggemann Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 60 (2018).pdf (original) (raw)
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Bible Economics: A Review Article
Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, 2024
This review of Economics and Empire in the Ancient Near East, edited by Matthew J. M. Coomber (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2023), the inaugural volume of a new series of Guides to the Bible and Economics, continues with a list of crucial issues that biblical scholarship ought to integrate in order to grasp the economic environments in which biblical texts were developed and formalized: usufruct and ownership, rich and poor, credit and debt, land and labour, and exploitation.
www.richardsorensen.com, 2021
An exploration about what the Bible says concerning economics, with three topics explored in detail: 1. What do Jesus and other Biblical authors say about money and economics? 2. Is the Bible capitalist or socialist, and what, if anything, does the Bible say about how an economic system should be constructed? 3. What role should government play in economics according to the Bible?
Economic Interpretation of the New Testament: Invisible Hands at Work
2014
Note. This draft is for discussion only. It was prepared for an edited volume that never saw the light of day. It was the basis for a presentation at the 2014 Society of Biblical Literature International Meeting in Vienna, Austria, and it provides background for a greatly expanded discussion of the biases of New Testament scholarship for a volume honoring Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza on her 80th birthday.
The Importance of Biblical Economics to the Field of Biblical Studies
Introductory Chapter to Economics and Empire in the Ancient Near East: Gide to the Bible and Economics, Volume 1, 2023
Biblical economics is a quickly developing subfield within the discipline of biblical studies, and for good reason. Neither the Bible as a whole nor its individual books can be fully understood without an awareness of their economic underpinnings. As is the case with any religious culture, either ancient or modern, Hebrew religious beliefs and practices cannot be divorced from the economic environments in which they were developed and formalized. It is for this reason that the first volume of the Center and Library for the Bible and Social Justice Series Guide to the Bible and Economics was created: to offer what is currently understood about the economic contexts of the ancient Near East, so as to facilitate further research on the economic environments that both shaped and were also challenged by Hebrew communities. The chapters within this book illuminate the economic realities that underpin Hebrew legal texts, prophetic oracles, narrative stories, and wisdom and apocalyptic writings that were composed in the late second and first millennia BCE. Before delving into the volume' s main body of work, this introduction explains the importance of the field of biblical economics and addresses some of the challenges faced by those who pursue its study. Importance of the Study of Biblical Economics to Biblical Studies-and Beyond It is understandable that the Bible is most often read without consideration for either its economic underpinnings or their implications. More often than
WealthWatch: A Study of Socioeconomic Conflict in the Bible (Introduction)
Pickwick Publications, 2011
The purpose of this book is to help postmodern Westerners understand what the Bible has to say about wealth and possessions, basing itself on the presumption that (a) nobody can understand themselves apart from some recognition of their spiritual roots, and (b) that these roots sink deeper into the pages of the Bible than most Westerners realize. Focusing on that part of the Bible most widely recognized to be its ideological core--that which is called Torah by some, Pentateuch by others--it interprets this "great text" against other "great texts" in its literary world, including some epic poems from Mesopotamia (Gilgamesh, Atrahasis, Erra), some Jewish texts from Syria-Palestine (1-2 Maccabees, Damascus Document, 1QS, 1QpHab, and 1QHodayot), and some Nazarene parables from the Greek New Testament (Gospel of Luke).
On Riches in the Bible and the West Today
2002
he Christian’s proper relationship with wealth has generated controversy in the church for much of church history. There have always been those who claim the Christian must renounce wealth and voluntarily accept poverty. There have also been those who claim that God will prosper the Christian. These differences can be explained by the tensions in the Bible regarding the proper relationship between God’s people and material possessions. On the one hand, God promised prosperity to Israel if Israel kept God’s commandments. On the other hand, Jesus said it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. Many American Christians regard themselves as rich, at least when the discussion turns to the Bible and the Bible’s teachings on wealth and poverty. A sermon on the story of the rich young ruler often includes a statement that we Christians in America today are rich, so we cannot dismiss the passage as not relevant to ourselves. S...
Economy and Business in the Bible. In: The Bible and Economics, ed. G. Benyik, Szeged 2014, 403-413
Many biblical texts throw an indirect light on the moral principles of economy. The Bible confirms the right to land property and private ownership, forbidding theft (Exod 20.15; Deut 5.19; cf. Matt 20.15; Acts 5.4). Humans obtain material goods through their work, which seems to be the main source of goods (Prov 10.4; 2 Thess 3.10-12 etc.). The interests are rejected, but in the case of loans to the brethren and to the poor; later, bank interests has been accepted by Jesus (Matt 25.27). The goal of economic activity is to give means of subsistence in sufficient quantity. Some further texts pertain directly to the business and businessmen. In 1 Kings 9.26-28 and 10.28-29 the international merchant enterprise of Solomon is praised. Prov 31.10-31 contains an idealized portrait of an exemplary businesswoman; she runs an enterprise, sells products, buys at good price, invest in an estate, gains a handsome income and spends it on herself, family and the needy. Sir 42.1,3-5, often mistranslated, lists some sources of income of the merchants as honorable things, even if trading involves moral risks (Sir 27.1-2 cf. Tit 1.7,11; Jas 4.13; Zech 14.21). The Parable of the Talents (Matt 25.14-30) shows investing millions and obtaining the double as an example to follow and a model for the religious life. In spite of serious moral dangers related to wealth, obtaining material goods through legal ownership, work and effective business has to be judged positively.
An Exploration of Economic Rhetoric in the New Testament in Light of New Institutional Economics
Welcoming the Nations: International Sociorhetorical Explorations, 2020
This paper aims to introduce the thought and incentive for incorporating economic texture into New Testament interpretation. Economics has been considered irrelevant for analysis of the New Testament context since economics is modern theory interested in areas that simply did not exist in the market economy of antiquity. Living in Hong Kong, the world’s most capitalist economy for more than forty years and being trained as an economist for more than ten years, I witnessed how deeply our lives and values are shaped by our economy. I used to believe that the rules of a capitalist society were fair because the market is free. Not until I personally encountered many poor families and witnessed their stories did I realize that the formal rules of the economy were supported and sustained by many values and informal institutions that are not true or fair. I started to realize that the economy is not merely a mechanism for allocation of resources; it shapes our values as well as our perceptions in many different ways. It is not only composed of formal rules but also informal institutions, and people may overlook its impact on their values, relationships, and perceptions. This view of the economy, that is, seeing economy as a set of institutions, comes from New Institutional Economics, and it helps us see the relevance of economics in interpretation of the New Testament.
Economics and Biblical Studies
Patron-Client-Broker Limited Good see this as an illegitimate claim by religion scholars to monopoly rights, and that granting it brings all the usual failings of a monopolized industry. The most common objection, discussed at length below, is that contemporary economic models are anachronistic and are not applicable to ancient societies. Rather than excluding contemporary economic analysis, one should see how it can offer new perspectives on texts. Economic tools have certainly illuminated contemporary religious behavior and institutions (see for instance the survey Iannaccone 1998) so why not ancient religious behavior and institutions? The purpose of this bibliography is to make contemporary mainstream economics more accessible to biblical scholars, including the theoretical tools of rational choice theory, game theory, information economics, and behavioural economics, and the most sophisticated empirical techniques in the contemporary social sciences. This bibliography excludes many important and interesting social scientific tools which economists have so far not engaged, for instance work on cognitive dissonance theory (e.g. Leon Festinger, RP Carroll, Gerd Theissen), covenant rather than contract relations (Richard Horsley), kinship in Mediterranean culture (e.g. Bruce Malina, Kenneth Bailey), anthropological studies of taboos (e.g. Mary Douglas), sociological theories of revolution and large scale social change (e.g. Weber, Durkheim, Norman Gottwald), and postcolonial theory (e.g. Mark