Kruse Kronicle

Calmly Considered: How The Church Fails Businesspeople

Last week, I participated with Allan Bevere in a discussion centered on John Knapp's book "How The Church Fails Businesspeople (And What Can Be Done About It)." Discussion focuses on integrating our faith and working lives, with reflection on why that integration is so challenging.

The Keynesian Revolution and Our Empty Economy: We're All Dead - Book Review

The Keynesian Revolution and Our Empty Economy: We're All Dead  (Quotes are from the e-book version.)

Is economics value-free? Can it be? In the nineteenth century, economics emerged alongside other social sciences, aspiring to apply the scientific method to study human behavior. Economists distinguish positive and normative economics - positive being descriptive and normative being prescriptive. The latter requires value judgments, making it beyond the realm of science. While an economist may wish to offer their perspective on what should be done, economics eschews prescriptive behavior. But is that the way economics works?

In The Keynesian Revolution and Our Empty Economy: We're All Dead, Dr. Victor Claar, professor of economics at Florida Gulf Coast University, and Dr. Greg Forster, Director of the Okonomia Network at Trinity International University, argue the story economists tell about themselves does not match reality. Simply reading the book title, one might assume this is another installment in the ongoing battle between Keynesianism economics and other economic theories. It is not. The authors say something transformative happened in the 1930s with the rise of John Maynard Keynes' economics, misshaping the discipline. Virtually the entire discipline (including the free-market Chicago school and Austrian economics) battles about a means to an end from within the Keynesian framework. The authors conclude with thoughts on a reforming agenda but first take us on a rich historical journey.

"Economics" Before the Nineteenth Century

Until the nineteenth century, "economics" was part of moral philosophy - political economy. Philosophers and theologians made normative appeals for economic behavior. Human existence has ultimate purposes. They inseparably connected their normative prescriptions to teleological realities. The authors identify a succession of three ethical paradigms related to economic thought over the millennia.

Nature paradigm – Classical philosophy. "What sets classical thought apart is the idea that nature has purposes, and human excellence is fulfilling those purposes." Wisdom comes from correctly understanding nature and its purposes. From this wisdom, we shape our daily affairs, including economic activity.

God paradigm – Judeo-Christian theology. "It began with the assumption that human beings are created by and under the authority of God and are placed both within and over nature by God. Their economic needs and behaviors are structured by God's design in creation and are being restored to that design through the redemption of the world in Christ, so conformity to God and his purposes was their standard for economic thought."

Reason paradigm – Born in Enlightenment philosophy. "It began with the assumption that human beings are rational, and their economic needs and behaviors can be understood and arranged rationally, so conformity to reason and its purposes (they understood 'reason' to include moral reason, including teleology or purposes) was their standard for economic thought."

Claar and Forster revisit these three historic paradigms throughout the book, demonstrating their normative and teleological components in contrast with Keynes emerging philosophy in the 1930s. The authors identify a fourth paradigm with Keynes, the Consumption paradigm. So how did the Consumption paradigm emerge?

The Beginning of Modern Economics

As scholars labored to establish economics in the late nineteenth century, there was substantial intra-disciplinary conflict about how to proceed; differing on what roles historicism, theory, and science should play. (The book gives some great history.) John Neville Keynes, John Maynard Keynes' father, assumed the role of peacemaker. He popularized the "positive versus normative" frame and worked to move scholars beyond endless squabbling toward productive research, thereby gaining credibility for the discipline.

Despite these ambitions, economics was not born in a vacuum. From the 1890s to World War I, societal gatekeepers saw themselves as stewards of a moral and cultural order, envisioning evermore progress and human improvement in keeping with the Reason paradigm. Decades before, John Stuart Mill had introduced homo economicus, human beings as rational, utility-calculating machines. Mill and these later economists retained at least a sense of the progress teleology, even as they began to apply the scientific method to evaluating behavior. Homo economicus was a knowingly simplified anthropology, but with research, one might imagine revision and nuance could be brought to bear over time. A variety of social changes in the years before and through World War I rocked confidence in the progress narrative, leaving the discipline adrift. Enter John Maynard Keynes.

The Keynesian Revolution

We frequently view John Maynard Keynes as a tedious academic. In reality, Keynes was a core member of the highly influential Bloomsbury Group in London, a collection of intellectuals and artists including Leonard and Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, Clive and Vanessa (Woolf) Bell, Duncan Grant, and Lytton Strachey. In Keynes's words, they embraced an "immoralist" philosophy devoted to pursuing pleasure. "Though they weren't sure what the highest forms of pleasure might be, their sense was that they could be found only among their greatest loves—in intimate relationships and in things like the arts, theater, and music—rather than in more pedestrian forms of enjoyment."

The Bloomsbury Group was disdainful of traditional values. This included values like diligence, frugality, and self-control, found in the Reason paradigm. Wealth accumulation and consumerism were dehumanizing influences obstructing the pursuit of pleasure. However, they believed only a select few could pursue pleasure as they envisioned. A materialistic bourgeois existence was the best for which the rest of humanity could hope. It was the task of the elite to shepherd the masses toward this end as the elite went about their higher pursuit of pleasure. Claar and Forster walk us through how Keynes' economics reflects this philosophy, but I will jump to a couple of takeaways for the sake of brevity.

The most revolutionary effect of Keynes' influence is his reshaping of means and ends. Mill introduced homo economicus as a rudimentary construct to aid in economic inquiry, not a characterization of human essence. Within Mill's construct was an assumption that we will rationally discern and pursue certain ends. Reason is the means for choosing between various courses of action to achieve those ends. These ends include teleological ends.

Keynes retains the idea of homo economicus but with substantial revision. With Keynes, there is no teleological purpose to guide economic behavior. "Animal spirits" drive human behavior, not reason, in pursuit of meaningful action. Reason is how each individual can best satisfy animalistic desires. Consumption to meet these desires takes center stage. For Keynes, homo economicus is not simply a methodological construct. It is an anthropological given. We must base economic policy on this premise.

In the General Theory [Keynes seminal book), economics abandons its nineteenth-century ambition to moral neutrality. It no longer seeks a place alongside chemistry and physics as a detached, disinterested, purely positive observer. It becomes, once again, a practical discipline with a moral vision.

But now the moral vision is radically different. Instead of the virtue, piety, or the progress of humanity, the moral vision of the General Theory is an animalistic homo economicus whose only economic goal is to satisfy his own consumption appetites. …

Another aspect of Keynes' influence is his introduction of "the economy." Before Keynes, economics was microeconomics. It was focused on how individuals, firms, and other players make decisions. Keynes introduced macroeconomics, focusing on the aggregate economic phenomenon for a nation or other large societal entity - money supply, interest rates, aggregate employment, gross domestic product, etc. Macroeconomics dominated the discipline to the point that when people hear "economics" today, they think of macroeconomic concepts.

For Keynes, "The economy" is a machine-like entity employed by elites like himself and members of the Bloomsbury Group in transmuting humanity to an elevated state. Keynes was sympathetic to socialist aims, but he writes:

It is not the ownership of the instruments of production which it is important for the State to assume. If the State is able to determine the aggregate amount of resources devoted to augmenting the instruments and the basic rate of reward to those who own them, it will have accomplished all that is necessary.

The authors note:

Keynes shares Marx's goal of giving the state control over our economic lives, which is to say, over all the most intimate and important decisions we make. He just thinks the state can accomplish this control without seizing ownership of assets.

The authors paraphrase Keynes' view this way:

In an ideal state, we would 'transmute' human nature, raising people not to care how much money they end up with after playing the "game" of money-making. However, for now we need to keep the game going. If we stop, we'll have nothing to eat; the economy runs not on productive work but on satisfying consumer appetites. Thus it is the responsibility of government to keep the game going. Keeping the game going involves all the players being highly motivated and playing to win—"strongly addicted to the money-making passion." The wise and prudent statesman will therefore "manage" human nature, keeping it in a state of socially beneficial greed , rather than attempt to "transmute" it toward real selflessness, at least so long as we live in the current state and not the ideal state.

Keynes has a vision of where he wants to take feckless humanity. His superior wisdom and that of people like his Bloomsbury peers will lead us there. Pragmatically, it must be done with manipulation. Moreover, some will never be transmuted. Keynes had an answer for that. He was chair of the British Eugenics Society from 1937-1944. He deemed eugenics to be the most important branch of sociology.

Keynesianism and Its Rivals

Claar and Forster explain Keynes was not particularly eloquent in expressing his ideas. Articulate acolytes popularized his economic constructs. For decades, Paul Samuelson, Nobel economist and author of the leading economics textbook, was probably the most important figure in advancing Keynesian ideas. However, these advocates made substantial qualifications to give us what we know as Keynesianism today.

The Keynesian advocates muted Keynes' crusading vision and reclaimed the idea of economics as a value-free science. However, they continued to embrace the view that people are bundles of appetites driven by animal spirits – Keynes' version of homo economicus. The goal should be to maximize consumption, enabling people to satisfy their appetites. Economists should guide the economy machine in these pursuits. This was the Consumption paradigm. It effectively institutionalized Keynes's homo economicus while eschewing teleological judgments.

The Chicago School (and the older but smaller Austrian School) emerged as the primary competition to Keynesian economics, rejecting Keynesian interventionism in favor of free market systems. They resisted "economics" as purely about large aggregate concepts and called for greater attention to microeconomic decision-making. Claar and Forster write:

However, the attention-grabbing conflict between these schools conceals a deeper uniformity. Both counter-revolutions accept most of the key elements of the Consumption paradigm. Most importantly, they accept Keynes' redefinition of the purpose of economic systems: to maximize consumption possibilities. They also accept Keynes' redefinition of Mill's homo economicus, which lay at the heart of the new focus on maximizing consumer satisfaction—they accept the instrumental rather than substantive understanding of rationality, and they accept the reversal of the relationship between gaining wealth and enjoying wealth.

The Keynesian constructs became so dominant that even schools that emerged to challenge aspects of Keynesian economics have internalized core Keynesian concepts.

The Consequences

The consequences extend well beyond an intra-disciplinary dispute. To a degree unparalleled by other social sciences, economics has succeeded in exerting influence over public policy and commerce, which has had ripple effects on other societal institutions. With varying degrees of resistance, homo economicus is largely how we institutionally treat our existence.

The problem, the authors would argue, is that we are not homo economicus. Human beings are meaning-makers. We see ourselves inside teleological narratives. We want not only to experience pleasure but also to participate in activities with lasting significance. We have not only consumption preferences but also production preferences. The impact of homo economicus is a world with greater prosperity, but that is largely vacant of meaning. In an existential sense, "we are all dead." This lack of meaning has people restless and increasingly impatient with societal institutions. A consequence is the rise in populism ranging from Donald Trump to Bernie Sanders, amassing power by feeding on palpable anger and frustration.

The empty economy produces polarization, because our daily economic activities no longer convey meaning and purpose (leaving us to seek those things in extreme movements) and because our daily economic activities no longer establish shared, public moral commitments (leaving us convinced we have no common ground with our neighbors). 

A Way Forward

"What would it look like to study economics on the assumption that people really do have higher purposes in life, but that we need not agree about everything concerning those purposes?"

The authors argue that the way forward is to escape the Consumption paradigm with its "animal spirits" anthropology and revisit teleological and anthropological assumptions. We may not thoroughly agree on every value across nations and cultures or even within them, but our values have much more in common than we may think. Some things are good whether everyone chooses to do them.

* People have production preferences as well as consumption preferences, including a desire to participate personally in the production of the intrinsically good. A sustainable economic life must account for both types of preferences (production and consumption) at the individual and cultural level.

* Production preferences can also be understood as stewardship preferences, meaning a desire to leave the world with more intrinsic good than it had when we arrived. A sustainable economic life must account in complex ways with the long-term time frames within which people make cost-benefit calculations, at the individual and cultural level.

* People are substantive reasoners who have the right and responsibility to discern the intrinsic good for themselves and participate personally in its production. A sustainable economic life must make this personal process of discernment and participation, not impersonal aggregate metrics, the goal of economic policy and discourse.

To conclude the book, the authors write:

In the long run, we are all dead—but life will go on when we are gone. We all know this, and in our economic lives we do not always behave as shallow, short-term consumers who don't care what we leave behind. If the discipline of economics wants to understand economic behavior as it really is, it must come to terms with the moral reality of human life. To ignore normative and teleological realities is to ignore the human, and to ignore the human is strange way to conduct a scientific study of how humans behave.

If we do not care what kind of world we are leaving, our economic systems will continue to be wracked by moral anxiety and the outrage it produces. Nationalists and socialists have their own reasons for wanting to block any movement toward a moral renewal that would restore confidence in our systems, but the rest of us should be seeking such a renewal with all the energy that the urgency of our situation demands. A return to economic vitality must begin with a restoration of confidence in our economic systems and practices, on the basis of a sustainable moral consensus for a pluralistic society.

We love economics. We love it because it matters—a lot. Tough new questions that overturn old certainties are already being asked in the discipline. We look forward to finding out what comes next.

Assessment

In short: teleology matters. Claar and Forster pack a lot into this book. My summary only scratches the surface. It is well worth the read for economists and those who think more broadly about economics and values. While I work to be conversant with economics and the history of economic thought, I am not an expert in either of these fields. People with better bona fides must evaluate the veracity of details presented in this book. Yet based on what I know, the overall argument rings true.

The history of how the Consumption paradigm came to dominate economics - with economists simultaneously fixating on consumption and claiming to be value-free - is helpful. There is no way to do social science without anthropological models and value assumptions. Economics is no exception. Homo economicus may be useful as a methodological tool for aspects of economic research, but it is insufficient as a model for grasping the complexities of human decision-making. I do not think that economics has so much rejected teleology, as it has uncritically embraced a teleology that is inadequate and subhuman.

I sense a discussion has been building on this topic in recent years. As with other social sciences, there seems to be an ongoing clash between those pursuing a grand unified theory and those who prefer more modest research into micro-level behavior from which larger models of human behavior can be derived. Unlike other social sciences, economics is unique in that "economics" and the concept of "the economy," a machine that can be directed toward particular ends by skillful elites, has gained considerable credibility in broader society. That likely makes challenges to macroeconomic models more difficult, but the importance of economics in policymaking also underscores the importance of getting underlying models of humanity right.

The book's most critical point is that "we are all dead." Human beings have a desire for the transcendent, to be a part of something meaningful, to pass on a legacy. Teleology matters. To use the authors' words, there is a production preference and a consumption preference. The Consumption paradigm is dehumanizing in that it robs people across economic strata of meaning-filled work. Resurrection of meaning in daily life will have to come from moral institutions outside of economics, but we cannot realize that ambition of understanding human decisions without economics. If economics is a study of human behavior, can it be said to be to accomplish its mission if it ignores the production preference aspects of human decision-making?

I appreciate the authors' advocacy for finding common ground on teleology across human cultures. Maybe a first step is for those of us invested in moral institutions to clarify our own values. As someone who has invested decades of service to Mainline Protestantism, it strikes me that there is a profound need for Christian theology to engage economics genuinely and respectfully and to move away from what all too often is a sophomoric and adversarial posture. Repeatedly, I encounter theologians and Christian thought leaders pontificating on economic issues, demonstrating they have not made the most rudimentary attempts to grasp basic economic concepts or represent those concepts faithfully. Theologism is all too common, but that is a conversation for another day. For now, we have this thought-provoking tome by Claar and Forster as a point of engagement. It is well worth the read.

 

Carpe Datum! Paragraphs from "Galileo's Middle Finger"

Alice Dreger's "Galileo's Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science," is one of the most refreshing books I have read recently. Dreger is a clinical medical humanities and bioethics professor at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. Nearly twenty years ago, Dreger became an activist for the rights of intersex persons. She fought to change the prevailing practice of surgically altering babies to "rectify" ambiguous genitalia, which science suggested was too risky relative to the outcomes, raising many ethical questions. Motivated by varying convictions, surgeons were ignoring science. But before long, Dreger found herself advocating for scientists against activists on another intersex issue. The activists ignored science and attacked scientists when research potentially contradicted activists' strongly held convictions. This book is Dreger's reflections on what she learned from these experiences. I expect to publish a review of the book shortly. For now, I want to post three power sections from the book. (All emphases in the original.)

This quote comes as she is reflecting on her experience talking with researchers at the University of Missouri who had been targeted because of controversial research findings.

The story I had been told about Mike Bailey and Craig Palmer and so many other white straight male scientists accused of producing bad and dangerous findings, the story I had willingly heard as an academic feminist in the humanities, was that these guys were just soldiers of the oppressive establishment against which we good guys had come to fight. They came from old dogma about human nature; we came from progress and social justice, and we had to win. But here I was faced with the fact that not only were these scientists politically progressive when it came to things like the rights of transgender people and rape victims, they were also willing to look for facts that might get them in hot water. They very much cared about progress in social justice, but they cared first about know what was true.

That didn't mean that these scientists (or I, or anyone else) existed without bias. It didn't mean their work wasn't shaped and sometimes tainted by politics, ideologies, and loyalties. But it did mean they tried to adhere to an intellectual agenda that wasn't first and only political. They believed that good science couldn't be done by just Ouija-boarding your answers. Good scholarship had to put the search for truth first and the quest for social justice second.

In Missouri [University of Missouri, Columbia], I realized that there's a practical reason for this order: Sustainable justice couldn't be achieved if we didn't know what's true about the world. (You can't effectively prosecute and prevent rape if you don't understand why, where, and how rape happens.) But there was also a more essential reason for putting the quest for truth first: it was who we scholars were supposed to be. As the little prop plane flew from Columbia, Missouri, toward the sunrise, of this I was sure: We scholars had to put the search for evidence before everything else, even when the evidence pointed to facts we did not want to see. The world needed that from us, to maintain – by our example, by our very existence – a world that would keep learning and questioning, that would remain free in thought, inquiry, and word.

Nevertheless I knew many of my colleagues in the humanities would disagree. I could practically hear them arguing against me, as if they were seated all around me in those cramped fake-leather seats, yelling to be heard above the churning propellers. We have to use our privilege to advance the rights of the marginalized. We can't let people like Bailey and Palmer say what is true about the world. We have to give voice and power to the oppressed and let them say what is true. Science is as biased as all human endeavors, and so we have to empower the disempowered, and speak always with them.

Involuntarily shaking my head, I argued back: "Justice cannot be determined merely by social position. Justice cannot be advanced by letting 'truth' be determined by political goals. Only people like us, with insane amounts of privilege, could ever think it was a good idea to decide what is right before we even know what it true. Only insanely privileged people like us, who never fear the knock of a corrupt police, could think guilt or innocence should be determined by identity rather than facts. It isn't perfect, but look what it has gotten us: antibiotics, an explanation and a treatment for AIDS, reliable histories of the Holocaust, DNA-based exonerations of those falsely accused of crimes, spaceships on the surface of Mars – hell, the plane we're flying in now.

Where would we be, I wondered, if the pope had ultimately won out over Galileo, if he succeeded in using his self-serving Catholic identity politics to forever quash Galileo's evidence that the ancients and the Bible were wrong about the Earth? Power plays as morality plays, whether by popes or feminists, are just that – plays. I longed for the real world, longed to pick apart each history to know what's true, to have my work judged by others, to find evidence that an idea is right or wrong. (136-138)

This passage comes from the end of the last chapter.

I want to say to activists: If you want justice, support the search for truth. Engage in searches for the truth. If you really want meaningful progress and not just temporary self-righteousness, carpe datum. You can begin with principles, yes, but to pursue a principle effectively, you have to know if your route will lead to your destination. If you must criticize scholars whose work challenges yours, do so on the evidence, not by poisoning the land on which we all live.

To scholars I want to say more: Our fellow human beings can't afford to have us act like cattle in an industrial farming system. If we take seriously the importance of truth to justice and recognize the many forces now acting against the pursuit of knowledge – if we really get why our role in democracy is like no other – then we really ought to feel that we must do more to protect each other and the public from misinformation and disinformation. Doing so means taking on more responsibility to police ourselves and everybody else for accuracy and great objectivity – taking on with renewed vigor the pursuit of accurate knowledge and putting ourselves second to that pursuit.

I know that a lot of people who met me along the way in this work thought I'd end up on one side of the war between activists and scholars. The deeper I went, however, the more obvious it became that the best activists and the best scholars actually long for the same kind of world – a free one.

Here's the one thing I now know for sure after this every long trip: Evidence really is an ethical issue, the most important ethical issue in a modern democracy. If you want justice, you must work for truth. And if you want to work for truth, you must do a little more than wish for justice. (261-262)

These two paragraphs are near the end of the epilogue.

The problem is an old one: People don't really get that good intentions can't save you from hell. So long as we believe that bad acts are committed only by evil people and that good people do only good, we will fail to see, believe, or prevent these kinds of travesties. Nowadays I feel as though 90 percent of my time talking to academics and activists is spent trying to convince them of this: The people who are against you are not necessarily evil, and your own acts are not necessarily good. That's why we still need scholars and activists. It's not easy to see what's what in the heat of the moment, and we need people pushing for the truth and justice if we're going to get both right.

But most people I run into aren't like us humans. Most people I meet seem convinced that the goodness of their souls will keep them from committing bad acts. When they look back at history, they don't see what we historians see – dumb tragedies. They see simple moral dramas, with predictable characters enacting easy stories of good and evil. They don't understand that the Nazis probably didn't think they were "Nazis." (275-276)

Powerful food for thought.

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"Nothing is Free: The Price Only Business can Pay to Protect Free Markets" by Dave Geenens - Book Review

Order at Amazon: Nothing is Free: The Price Only Business can Pay to Protect Free Markets.

What is the purpose of business, particularly as it relates to the welfare of employees? Economists, business leaders, and theologians engage in endless debate about this topic. Regrettably, it tends to be two separate debates with economists and business leaders talking amongst themselves and theologians talking to each other. The first debate tends to be long on economic ramifications but without considerable reflection on what moral imperatives might be at play. The second debate tends to be long on moral reflection but too often within the context of (sometimes profound) economic illiteracy. Each community tends to view the other with suspicion if not hostility. Layer on top of this the political divide between libertarians who see only a minimal role for government intervention in business and liberals who believe a primary purpose of government is to intervene in economic affairs to ensure equitable outcomes, and you frequently end up with unproductive heated debates.

This inability to reflect both economically and morally on such questions leads to significant compartmentalization, so well described in John Knapp’s How the Church Fails Business People (and What Can Be Done About It. See my blog series on the book here.) Businesses frequently dissuade people from bringing their morals into the workplace. Pastors are reticent to approach the topic, except in platitudes, feeling inadequate to wrestle deeply with economic implications. Some businesspeople prefer not to hear about such topics at Church (either distrusting the pastor’s understanding or because they see the Church as a safe haven from the cares of the world), and most pastors are content to oblige. (And from my experience, those pastors who aggressively raise the topic frequently do so from a variety of deep ideological convictions that tend not to generate helpful dialog and reflection.) Yet we need “courageous conversations,” as Knapp calls them, where we genuinely explore how work and faith interact. But how do we begin such a conversation?

Dave Geenens, Director of the School of Business and Graduate Business Programs at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas, has given us a wonderful gift in starting courageous conversations with his new book Nothing is Free: The Price Only Business can Pay to Protect Free Markets. This is NOT an academic treatise. It is a fable.

Geenens prefaces the story by noting:

One of the first lessons I learned in business was that nothing is free. Free freight? There is no such thing. That simply means that the cost of freight is covered by profit made elsewhere. By one, get one free? The cost of the second item is covered in the margin of the first one. Interest free? The cost of interest is absorbed in the profit made on the sale of the item. Nothing is free.”

The book introduces Rebecca Morton, founder of the franchise business Cupcakes and Coffee, based in Atchison, Kansas, just as the corporation is about to go public. Rebecca is wrestling with what this means for her and her business, particularly with the increased focus on increasing shareholder value. Then she meets Brother Mark, a Benedictine Monk. Throughout the book, we listen in on Rebecca’s conversations and inner reflections as she tries to make sense of it all.

Geenens draws on Roman Catholic social teaching to highlight the good that business is intended to do. At the risk of spoilers, if the business fails to live out its charge to care for the well-being of its employees, other institutions (namely government) must intervene to correct the inadequacy. The advantage business gains through the neglect of employees and failure to do the good it is intended to do isn’t free. The cost is increased government intervention.

What is the good that business is to do, and how do we achieve it? It is a complicated question that Geenens does not directly answer. Instead, he invites us to consider the four cardinal virtues: justice, wisdom, courage, and moderation. How might these inform us as we think about the intersection of work and faith? I won’t give away the whole story here. Geenens’ ideas are pulled together into one image at the end of the book, but you’ll need to buy the book to see what I mean.

The book is well-written and accessible to most audiences. (No degrees in economics or theology required.) I can see this as a wonderful selection for a church book club, any community of business professionals interested in integrating faith and work, and a text for college or graduate classes. Despite the explicitly Christian context of the story, I think the book has merit beyond discussion in religious communities as we think about business ethics. The book is a wonderful discussion starter … a great starting place for a courageous conversation. Buy your copy now at Amazon: Nothing is Free: The Price Only Business can Pay to Protect Free Markets.

24 Books That Forecasted The Future

Business Insider: 24 Books That Forecasted The Future

God’s Favorite Place on Earth

I recently received a copy of a new book by Frank Viola titled God's Favorite Place on Earth. The book uses a creative approach to reflecting on Jesus' visits to Bethany. Each of the six chapters begins with Viola role-playing Lazarus, narrating the various episodes from his viewpoint. Each chapter then presents the biblical text of the story, followed by Viola's reflections. There are discussion questions at the back for group study.

I confess that I am not typically fond of this genre, where an author tries to offer a narrative through the mouth of a biblical character, but this worked. I had never really thought about the place of Bethany in the larger scheme of things, at least not in the way Viola has done here. I found this to be an enjoyable read, prompting many moments of reflection. I encourage you to check it out if you are looking for a devotional or for a small group study.

Viola and the publisher will give you twenty-five bonus gifts to promote the book if you buy them by May 7. So jump on over to www.godsfavoriteplace.com and check it out.

35 Amazing Graphs That Show How Your Spending Habits Change With Age

Atlantic: 35 Amazing Graphs That Show How Your Spending Habits Change With Age

Amazing graphs on what happens to spending on everything from underwear to airlines as we grow up

It's that time of year again when Americans spend like crazy for their loved ones and themselves.

But everyone's needs and wants evolve dramatically with age.

HS Dent, an economic forecasting firm, compiled Census data on spending behavior and presented them as a series of demand curves (see right). The curves measure average annual expenditure for a given product over the age of the consumer.

The charts couldn't be more plain. But with a tiny bit of imagination, the curves offer a vivid look at how spending patterns change over time.

What are some things we learned? Well, men spend less on underwear as they get old, but spending on robes spike near the end of life. As we get older we use a lot less plastic cutlery. And alcohol consumption stays pretty steady from the day we turn 21 until we turn around 70.

Here are three examples:

Did any of the 35 graphs surprise you?

 

The Anti-Science Left?

Two weeks ago, I published a post Why Are Environmentalists Taking Anti-Science Positions? referencing an article written by environmentalist Fred Pearce. I read this book review in Forbes over the weekend.

Forbes: Enviro-Romanticism Alert: Obama Won, But Can He Shake the Anti-Innovation, Junk Science Beliefs of His Base?

A polemical new book, Science Left Behind, argues persuasively that there is less than meets the eye in self-righteous claims by Democrats that they represent the “pro-science party.” Jon Entine,  Director of the Genetic Literacy Project, reports:

The debate over which political party, Democrat or Republican, is more faithful to science has been a hot button topic since the 1990s. ...

... A slew of books and articles from left-leaning science writers—which means most of the science journalism establishment—has elevated the popular narrative that Democrats adhere faithfully to the inspiration of Newton, Galileo, Bacon and Darwin while Republicans look more to ethereal authorities for their application of the scientific method.

But now, Alex Berezow and Hank Campbell, co-authors of Science Left Behind: Feel-Good Fallacies and the Rise of the Anti-Scientific Left, make a nuanced and convincing counter argument: Ludditism is not a partisan issue. In fact, on many of the most critical issues of our time, the “progressive” perspective is often rooted in out-dated, anti-empirical, junk science paradigms that threaten innovation—and are beginning to unnerve the most scientifically minded thinkers on the left. ...

... The central thesis of Science Left Behind—that the left’s view of science has drifted decisively from empiricism into ideology—has now emerged as a genuine debate within the left community. This contentiousness became very public over the past month as “progressives” debated the merits of California Proposition 37, which would have mandated labeling of foods containing genetically modified organisms.

For the political left, suspicion of biotechnology in general and more specifically the rejection of genetically modified crops as environmentally hazardous and GM foods as health hazards are now canonical. Almost every major activist environmental NGO supported Prop 37. But their contention that biotech crops and foods posted unusual environmental or health hazards is not based on science. In fact, fanning fears about biotech crops and foods has become a scandalous leftwing obsession. It’s an anti-science mindset, argues Keith Kloor, a frequent contributor to the Washington Post-owned, liberal online magazine Slate:

“[F]ears are stoked by prominent environmental groups, supposed food-safety watchdogs, and influential food columnists; that dodgy science is laundered by well-respected scholars and propaganda is treated credulously by legendary journalists; and that progressive media outlets, which often decry the scurrilous rhetoric that warps the climate debate, serve up a comparable agitprop when it comes to GMOs,” Kloors wrote. “In short, I’ve learned that the emotionally charged, politicized discourse on GMOs is mired in the kind of fever swamps that have polluted climate science beyond recognition.”

This soft conspiracy, promoted by mainstream Democrats, infects a broad array of science issues and highlights the religious-like iconic beliefs of the left (as Kloor has noted): Nature is sacred, big business is dangerous and corrupt, technology can cause more problems than it helps solve, the world is on the verge of an eco-apocalypse, and we need more precaution, regulation and legislation. I call it enviro-romanticism, a criticism documented in distressing detail in Science Left Behind. ...

... As George Monbiot, one of the United Kingdom’s most prominent environmental writers recently concluded when discussing the left’s contradictory and increasingly anti-environmental energy policy, “[T]he environmental movement to which I belong has done more harm to the planet’s living systems than climate change deniers have ever achieved.” We could all benefit from the emergence of what I call “science independents”—those who base their views on data and evidence rather than partisan leanings and litmus tests. ...

I think the challenge is that we all tend to latch on to science that confirms our experience and ideology. We are dismissive when it doesn't. We need better models for incorporating science into discussions in the public square.

The Definitive-ish Guide for Using Social Media in the Church - Book Review

How can my Church effectively use social media? Which social media services should my Church use? Aren’t we opening our congregation to abuse if we venture into social media?

I’ve been blogging for seven years, and because of that, I frequently get questions like these from pastors and congregation leaders. I can offer some help, but social media can be used in many creative ways. I’ve never focused on social media’s application for a congregation, so my input has always been incomplete. But now I have definitive-ish solution, or at least a starting place, for congregations that want to engage with social media fully.

Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow wrote a book, The Definitive-ish Guide for Using Social Media in the Church, earlier this year. Bruce was a church planter and a pastor. He is also a past moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). But most importantly, Bruce has been an avid social media user as a pastor in the congregational setting.

The book begins with Bruce highlighting cultural shifts that have reshaped how we communicate and connect. He writes about the spirituality of social media and the inherent dangers, offering insights on navigating this new world.

As a starting place, Bruce recommends five social media tools:

• Facebook
• Blogging
• Google Docs
• Yelp
• Dropbox

I use all five of these. Maybe you do too. But what was helpful for me was Bruce showing particular ways these tools can be helpful in the life of a congregation. He raised several ideas I hadn’t given much consideration. For instance, I use Yelp to look up stuff all the time. What are people saying about your congregation at Yelp? Have you encouraged people in your congregation to write a review so people who want to know about your congregation can get a flavor of what you are about? My congregation has one review. I’m going to work on that. In a later chapter, for the more adventurous souls, Bruce briefly explores several other social media tools like Twitter, YouTube, Goodreads, and Instagram.

Near the end of the book, Bruce offers some very helpful advice for pastors. You have been a congregation pastor for several years and now have taken a new call. In the PCUSA world, you are expected to severe pastoral relationships with your congregation so there is no confusion for the new pastor. But you are now Facebook friends with half your congregation and a member of groups the congregation has formed through social media. How do you manage this transition? I think Bruce offers some very helpful advice. He has had to live this himself.

Finally, Bruce closes out with a frequently asked questions chapter. He invites his readers to jump in and communicate what they learn along the way. He has an appendix that offers some practical help. The book is only available (I believe) in electronic format. That will allow Bruce to update the book easily as social media evolves. He tells me he is already working on a second edition.

This book is just awesome! If your congregation has been resisting social media, I’d encourage you to read this book. Even if your congregation has already been using social media, I think you will find tips and ideas you may not have considered. It is a relatively short book written in a very engaging style. I now feel like I have a tool I can give to others to help get them started. I recommend you get a copy today.

Take a Load Off — The Rest of Life - Ben Witherington

The Bible and Culture: Take a Load Off — The Rest of Life

For some time now I have been working on a series of bite sized books on Kingdom or eschatological perspectives on mundane or ordinary life. There is one on the Kingdom itself (Imminent Domain–Eerdmans), one on worship (We Have Seen his Glory–Eerdmans), one on work (Work– Eerdmans), one on money (Jesus and Money– Brazos Press), one on spiritual formation (The Shared Christian Life– Abingdon), and finally now one on 'the Rest of Life'–Rest, Play, Eating, Studying, Relating (including sexual relating). Each of these books are under 200 pages, and intended to promote more serious theological and ethical reflection on the things we do most of the time every single week.

What has constantly amazed me in doing this series of books is how few predecessors amongst Biblical scholars I have had in writing on several of these subjects. It's as if we are not talking about soteriology or theology proper (the doctrine of God) or some forms of eschatology, then we must not be doing theology or ethics. It's strange. ...

AMEN!!! (Oops. Did I yell that out loud?)

... The irony is that this little 168 page book, like it's predecessors, is all about eschatology, or better said, taking an eschatological look at the ordinary. The question being asked in answered in each of these books is— What difference does it make if we view these ordinary things of life in light of the already and not yet eschatological activity called the Kingdom of God? My answeer, as you might imagine, is 'much in every way'. If we are seriously about our eschatology, both present and future, this should absolutely change the way we view all these subjects— worship viewed from the end backwards looks different, and so does work, and money, and marriage, and rest, and play, and spiritual formation etc. ...

As I read this, my mind went back to a post I did years ago with a lengthy quote from Miroslav Volf, Miroslav Volf on Theology of Work.

Given the paramount importance of work in both liberal and socialist economic and social theory, it is remarkable that in our world dominated by work a serious crisis in work had to strike before church bodies paid much attention to the problem of human work. Theologians are to blame for the former negligence. Amazingly little theological reflection has taken place in the past about an activity that takes up so much of our time. The number of pages theologians have devoted to the question of transubstantiation – which does or does not take place on Sunday – for instance, would, I suspect, far exceed  the number of pages devoted to work that fills our live Monday through Saturday. My point is not to belittle the importance of correct understanding of the real Presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper but to stress that a proper perspective on human work is at least as important. ...

The post excerpts a few more paragraphs, but you get the picture.

There have been a few scholars who have ventured into this territory Dr. Witherington is talking about. Robert Banks and R. Paul Stevens are two who come to mind. But it astounds me that virtually no one I talk to in the church hierarchy, or the academy has the remotest interest in championing a redress of this indifference. And yet I am thoroughly convinced that there cannot be, and there empathically will not be, any renewal in the church until large numbers of Christians come to see how the work and activities of daily life connect with God's overarching mission in the world. All the efforts to extract Christians out of the world into our evangelistic or social justice programs will have no impact.

Thank you, Dr. Witherington, for tackling these issues. May the theological tribe you spawn multiply and prosper.

The Pope and the CEO: John Paul's Leadership Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard - Book Review

The business world is not an easy place to practice Christian discipleship. Some challenges are obvious, but there are many trapdoors as we journey along the path. How nice it would be to have mentors along the way.

Andreas Widmer had just such a mentor. Widmer served as Swiss guard at the Vatican for two years in the late 1980s. His frequent encounters with Pope John Paul II shaped his life as a businessperson over the coming years. Last year Widmer published a book about his personal journey called The Pope and The CEO: John Paul II’s Leadership Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard. Claudia Ellermann, a friend of mine from church, was a colleague of Widmer’s in the 1990s, and she put me on to the book. I’m glad she did.

The book is divided into nine chapters, sandwiched between introductory remarks and a conclusion. Each chapter addresses a particular vocational question that leaders must wrestle with and offers habits we might develop to become better leaders. What is intriguing is the format. Each chapter contains a vignette from Widmer’s life and his encounters with John Paul II. Widmer offers up some of his own painful failures, as well as some triumphs, and how at times, he had to relearn lessons he learned from the Pope. Questions at the end of each chapter can be used as a personal reflection or as the basis for discussion in a group setting.

Widmer comes from a Roman Catholic perspective, and there were a couple of places where I had to translate ideas into Presbyterian <grin>. But the lessons learned are meaningful for any disciple of Jesus Christ. The presentation of the issues in an autobiographical format, often offering very intimate insights, makes it a deeply engaging read. I recommend this book to anyone who finds themselves in a leadership position, particularly in the business world.

A Philosopher Defends Religion

New York Times Review of Books: A Philosopher Defends Religion Book Review

The gulf in outlook between atheists and adherents of the monotheistic religions is profound. We are fortunate to live under a constitutional system and a code of manners that by and large keep it from disturbing the social peace; usually the parties ignore each other. But sometimes the conflict surfaces and heats up into a public debate. The present is such a time.

One of the things atheists tend to believe is that modern science is on their side, whereas theism is in conflict with science: that, for example, belief in miracles is inconsistent with the scientific conception of natural law; faith as a basis of belief is inconsistent with the scientific conception of knowledge; belief that God created man in his own image is inconsistent with scientific explanations provided by the theory of evolution. In his absorbing new book, Where the Conflict Really Lies, Alvin Plantinga, a distinguished analytic philosopher known for his contributions to metaphysics and theory of knowledge as well as to the philosophy of religion, turns this alleged opposition on its head. His overall claim is that “there is superficial conflict but deep concord between science and theistic religion, but superficial concord and deep conflict between science and naturalism.” By naturalism he means the view that the world describable by the natural sciences is all that exists, and that there is no such person as God, or anything like God. ...

Looks interesting.

Paul thru Mediterranean Eyes– a Review Part One (Ben Witherington)

The Bible and Culture: Paul thru Mediterranean Eyes– a Review Part One (Ben Witherington)

What follows in the next ten days, is my extended review and critique of Ken Bailey’s latest book, which won a Christianity Today book award this past year. I have appreciated many of Ken’s interesting insights and perspectives over the years, and nothing I say in this review should be taken to mean that I have changed my mind about that. It is just that this book is not up to the rather high standards he has previously set and has some real issues that should be pointed out. Along the way, I will also point out some of the valuable insights one can gain from reading this book. BW3 ...

Book Review: How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and what can be done about it), by John C. Knapp

Seedbed: How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and what can be done about it), by John C. Knapp by Guy Williams

A couple years ago at a clergy retreat I cornered a colleague who had entered pastoral ministry after a previous career with a multinational energy company. At the time, I was preaching to a host of successful businesspeople and needed guidance. “Well, here’s where most of those people are,” my friend said. “They are busy and don’t feel they have the time to be there, but they came. And they are thinking about how the decisions they had to make on Friday are going to play out on Monday.”

The conversation made something I knew the truth of--that people have a life outside of church activities--refreshingly and challengingly concrete.

In How the Church Fails Businesspeople, John C. Knapp tackles the thorny subject of the Church’s role in helping people integrate faith and work in their Christian discipleship. ...

Fair Trade? Its Prospects as a Poverty Solution

A couple of years ago, economist Victor Claar published a monograph analyzing the effectiveness of fair-trade coffee as a poverty solution. I wrote the foreward. The Kindle version of the monograph is free at Amazon today only. Can't get much fairer than free! ;-)

Fair Trade? Its Prospects as a Poverty Solution

Index: How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and what can be done about it)

Over the past month, I did a book discussion series on John Knapp's, How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and what can be done about it.). Each post was originally posted on Scot McKnight's Jesus Creed blog, and then I reposted each entry here at the Kruse Kronicle. Here is an index to the series for those who may be interested:

Jesus Creed

Business People 1

Business People 2

Business People 3

Business People 4

Business People 5

Business People 6

Business People 7

Business People 8

Kruse Kronicle

How the Church Fails Businesspeople 1

How the Church Fails Businesspeople 2

How the Church Fails Businesspeople 3

How the Church Fails Businesspeople 4

How the Church Fails Businesspeople 5

How the Church Fails Businesspeople 6

How the Church Fails Businesspeople 7

How the Church Fails Businesspeople 8

YouTube: John Knapp - How the Church Fails Businesspeople: and what can be done about it.

I'm presently doing a chapter by chapter review of the book at Jesus Creed. I'm also posting the reviews here at the Kruse Kronicle. Chapter Six will be posted tomorrow. Here are links to each of the first five entries at Jesus Creed. There are three more to come and the series will be complete next week:

• First
• Second
• Third
• Fourth
• Fifth

New Book: "How the Church Fails Businesspeople" by John Knapp

How do business and Christian discipleship relate? A much-anticipated book is being released this week by Eerdmans: How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and What Can Be Done About It) by John Knapp. (Also Amazon.) The product description says:

Why do so many Christians struggle to relate their faith to their daily work? Is the church to blame? In this book John C. Knapp argues that the church's ambiguous teachings about vocation, money, and business have long contributed to Christians' uncertainty about discipleship in the workplace. Drawing on his own expertise in business ethics and on numerous interviews with Christians in diverse occupations, Knapp brings fresh perspectives to this troubling problem.

How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and What Can Be Done about It) explores the historical, cultural, and educational background to the faith-work gap and proposes a new theological framework for Christian life in the public sphere. Real-life examples enliven the discussion throughout, and each chapter concludes with "Questions to Consider," making this constructive book ideal for group study.

John is doing a three-part blog post to introduce the book:

John C. Knapp is founding director of the Frances Marlin Mann Center for Ethics and Leadership at Samford University and author of the forthcoming book How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and What Can Be Done About It). In this post (the first in a three-part series), he discusses the "dangerous chasm separating the worlds of faith and work" that compelled him to write the book. 

Many Christians struggling to make their faith relevant to their daily work find the church oddly indifferent to their lives on the job.

I have become increasingly aware of this phenomenon over the last twenty-five years, first as a consultant to an array of business and professional clients, and more recently as an educator of both business and seminary students. I have known countless believers who say the church does little or nothing to equip them for faithful living in the settings where they spend most of their waking hours and productive years.

How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and What Can Be Done About It) was written to shed light on the cultural, historical, theological, and educational influences that have led to this situation. Throughout the book, I incorporate real-life anecdotes and examples, many drawn from interviews with 230 Christians actively seeking to bridge their Sunday church and weekday work. These interviews were conducted mostly by working pastors in a doctoral course I taught, and they involved a diversity of respondents, from corporate CEOs and elected officials to barbers and bookkeepers. They included active members of Protestant (nine denominations) and Roman Catholic congregations in all regions of the United States. ...

Read the whole thing. I attended John's workshop on this topic a couple of years ago and have been anticipating this book ever since. The insights from his research are priceless. I look forward to getting my copy. I suspect you'll be reading more about the book here at the Kruse Kronicle before long.

Upside: Surprising GOOD NEWS About the State of Our World - Book Review

Hunger and poverty are increasing, people are working longer hours, crime is worsening, and violence worldwide is rising. In short, the world is going to hell in a handbasket. So goes the common wisdom. But the common wisdom is wrong. Long-time readers of the Kruse Kronicle who have read my series on American Social Indicators and World Social Indicators know that most social indicators show an improving world … in some facets, the improvements are nothing short of astonishing.

Now comes an excellent book by sociologist Brad Wright, Upside: Surprising GOOD NEWS About the State of Our World. Wright covers most of the issues I’ve raised on my blog, plus many more. It is full of wonderful stats and charts, but the narrative is in Wright’s characteristically engaging, witty style.

Wright is not saying that everything in the world is improving (think things like obesity and environmental challenges), but it is hardly a planet on the verge of disaster. In fact, there are reasons for considerable optimism. Following Matt Ridley’s lead, he sees the coming to fruition of specialization and exchange as a key to the recent rise in human welfare. One area where I would like to have heard more is why pessimism is so pervasive. He offers some insights. For one, our modern society is highly adaptive due to the rise of specialization and exchange. But it is incomprehensibly complex. Because of our inability to grasp complexity, we are prone to extrapolate present trends … particularly negative ones … indefinitely into the future. There is a radical underestimation of our adaptive ability. Furthermore, we seem programmed not to see incremental life improvements. Once an improvement arrives, it quickly becomes the new normal. But we easily fixate on negative news and trends we experience as threats. And, of course, news sources are aware of the fixation and highlight such news to attract readers. That is how we create a society where the majority think their life is good or getting better but also think other people’s lives are going downhill.

The book is a gem. His data is documented in endnotes, mostly available through websites or readily available sources. I will keep this book on my reference shelf, and you will undoubtedly see it referenced in future Kronicle posts. Pick up a copy today.

Remember the Poor: Paul, Poverty, and the Greco-Roman World - Book Review

Jesus preached the Kingdom of God, calling for social justice, while Paul wrote about theology … or so a common refrain goes. But is it true? Bruce Longenecker, in Remember the Poor: Paul, Poverty, and the Greco-Roman World, presents a compelling case that this is not true.

Part of the challenge in New Testament scholarship is being clear about what we mean when we say "the poor." Some scholars have been inclined to believe that the top 1% of society was "the wealthy" and everyone else was "the poor." Others, like Steven J. Friesen, have done extensive work stratifying the Greco-Roman world. Longenecker builds on Friesen's work and proposes the following economic scale. The categories are Friesen's. The estimated percentages of the total population are Longenecker's:

• ES1 – Imperial Elites (.04%)   imperial dynasty, Roman senatorial families, a few retainers, local royalty, a few freedpersons
• ES2 – Regional or provincial elites (1%)  equestrian families, provincial officials, some retainers, some decurial families, some freedpersons, some retired military officers
• ES3 – Municipal elites (1.76%)  most decurial families, wealthy men and women who do not hold office, some freedpersons, some retainers, some veterans, some merchants
• ES4 – Moderate Surplus  (15%)  most merchants, some traders, some freedpersons, some artisans (especially those who employ others), and military veterans
• ES5 – Stable near subsistence level (with reasonable hope of remaining above the minimum level to sustain life)  (27%)  many merchants and traders, regular wage earners, artisans, large shop owners, freedpersons, and some farm families
• ES6 – At subsistence level (and often below minimum level to sustain life)  (30%)  small farm families, laborers (skilled and unskilled), artisans (esp. those employed by others), wage earners, most merchants and traders, small shop/tavern owners
• ES7 – Below subsistence level  (25%)  some farm families, unattached widows, orphans, beggars, disable, unskilled day laborers, prisoners

Longenecker also talks about an elongated spectrum for ES4, with an upper and lower group. Paul was likely from ES4. Many of the household churches were probably of this status but not all. Jesus was from ES5. When Jesus talked about the poor, he most likely talked about ES6 and ES7. It is also possible that the percentage of people in various strata differed in Palestine compared to urban centers.

One of the challenges with using economic strata is that it somewhat imposes a Marxian lens onto the ancient world. The Greco-Roman world was not so much defined by class as by an intricate web of pyramidal patron-to-client relationships. A slave could be economically comfortable, while a free farmer may have lived on the edge. Still, when we come to the question of who was "the poor," it gives us a clearer picture.

There is also an interesting discussion about what level of charity and generosity was present in ancient cultures. According to the analysis in this book, the tendency by some to say that there was no charity and generosity until the Judeo-Christian movement is an overstatement. (For instance, why were there beggars if no one gave to them?) There were measures to care for the poor, but the Judeo-Christian movement was unique in both the extent to which the poor were valued and the centrality that caring for the poor played in their communities.

Longenecker begins his analysis of Paul and the poor by taking a look at Paul's famous comment in Galatians 2:10:

"They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do."

For much of church history, interpreters have said that Paul referred to the poor in Jerusalem … not the poor generically. Paul was speaking to the particular context. Many prominent scholars hold this view today. Yet Longenecker shows no evidence of this view before the fourth century and that interpreters before that time interpreted it as though it generically meant "the poor." He builds a convincing case that, far from addressing an isolated context, Paul was articulating something that he saw as central to the gospel.

But if there was a concern for the poor, it was primarily for the poor as they became part of the Jesus movement. Longenecker writes:

In general, it is most likely that care for the poor was primarily practiced intra-communally within Jesus-groups. In view of the huge number of destitute and poor within the ancient urban context, and the relatively limited resources of Jesus-groups, it would be foolhardy to imagine much other than an intra-communal practice of extending support in limited supply to a few within a community. Anything beyond that was probably unlikely to transpire. (291)

Although broader concern for the poor of society fit with the grand Judeo-Christian narrative, the Jesus groups were limited in what they could address. Longenecker also writes:

At no point do we get the sense that the ES4 members were selling all of their resources in an effort to equalize the economic profile of all Jesus-followers. There is no sense that Paul expected all members of urban Jesus-groups to pool their resources and distribute them equally between all of the members. Economic differences continued to exist within communities of Jesus-followers that Paul established, and Paul imagined nothing to be wrong with that, as long as the needs of the needs of the poor were being met. (288-289)

At some point, I think he comments that it was neither "communism nor charity." The poor were cared for in a context where people were responsible for themselves (you don't work, you don't eat). People reaped the rewards according to their status and their labor. But the Jesus communities were also inclusive of the poor with dignified means of caring for them as full partners in the community.

The book is a treasure trove of economic and sociological analysis. I've only highlighted a couple of key points. At the end of the book, he summarizes his analysis in nine key observations:

1. Paul, the follower of Jesus and apostle to gentiles of the Greco-Roman world, was concerned about the plight of the poor in the urban contexts in which he operated.
2. Although this was not his sole interest, and although he was not forced to deal with it extensively in his extant letters, care for the economically needy was a matter that he deemed to be characteristic of the identity of Jesus-followers.
3. Communities of Jesus-followers that Paul established were expected to offer care for the poor – albeit in their own groups in the first instance, although theoretically beyond those confines as well, if/as resources permitted.
4. Paul shared this conviction with other sectors of the early Jesus-movement that were committed to caring for the poor, and with leading figures of the early Jesus-movement – including its influential "founder" (i.e., Jesus) and that founder's influential brother (i.e., James).
5. With Paul properly situated in this respect, care for the poor is recognized to have been practiced fairly ubiquitously across the spectrum of first-century proto-orthodox circles of the Jesus-movement.
6. The early Jesus-movement, including Paul's own mission to Greco-Roman urbanities, embodied and exemplified values long embedded with mainstream forms of Early Judaism.
7. Rightly or wrongly, Paul and other leading figures of the early Jesus-movement imagined (along with some other Jews of their day) that care for the poor was not a notable feature of Greco-Roman paganism.
8. Paul imagined care for the poor among gentile communities of Jesus-followers to be an expression and embodiment of the invading triumph of the deity of Israel who had made himself known in the scriptures of Israel, in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and now through the Spirit/spirit that enlivened small groups of Jesus-followers.
9. Proto-orthodox forms of Christianity from the second through fourth centuries are known to have enormously augmented the strategies and institutions for caring for the poor to an unprecedented extent in the Greco-Roman world. Those efforts are organically related to more low-level forms of similar efforts evident throughout the early Jesus-movement, with Paul taking a prominent lead in spearheading such efforts among the gentile urbanites of the Greco-Roman world.

This book does a masterful job of opening a window into the socio-economic context of the early Christian world. Its extensive documentation makes it a rich resource for pursuing more study. If you can't tell, I think this book is a must-read.

New Book: "Upside: The Suprising Good News About the State of Our World" by Brad Wright

Bradley Wright's Weblog: My new book, Upside, is now available

My second book has been released. It’s entitled Upside: Surprising Good News about the State of Our World, and it’s available on Amazon, Christian bookstores, and various other places… if there are any left ;-)

The guiding question for this book is whether the world is getting better or worse. Now, I realize that you’re probably thinking right now that that’s too narrow of a topic, but bear with me, it’s a question worth asking. ...

... My book develops two paradoxes. One, many, many things in the world are getting better, but most people are convinced that things are getting worse. Two, most people think that their lives are getting better, but their community and nation is getting worse. In my book I explore the reasons for these paradoxes.

After that—since I’m a data-driven guy—I present information about what’s happening in the world. I cover areas that most people take as important, such as income and poverty, health, education, happiness, crime, freedom, faith, marriage, families, and the environment.

In each of these areas, I present the best available data about how things are changing. The data come from sources such as the US Census Bureau, the World Bank, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Environmental Protection Agency, and various sociological surveys.

I finish with examining various explanations for why so many things are getting better, and what we should do in response. ...

I can't wait to read this book! As long time Kronicle readers know, I've visited this topic over and over again at my blog. I did a World Social Indicators - 2008 series that details some of these issues. The incredible amount of pessimism in the face of the greatest expansion of global prosperity and physical well-being in the history of the world is just astounding.

 

The Economics of Religion and Happiness

New York Times - Economix: A Conversation With Eduardo Porter

(I'm not saying I endorse everything Porter is saying but it is an interesting discussion.)

Eduardo Porter and I were colleagues on the economics beat at The New York Times several years ago, and he is now a member of the editorial board. He’s also the author of the recent book “The Price of Everything.” Our conversation, the latest installment of this blog’s Book Chat series, follows:

Q. Let’s start with an unusual topic for a book on prices: religion. You suggest an economic framework for thinking about religion. The costs of religion are time (in church, praying and the like) and behavior restrictions (against what you can eat, whom you can marry and the like). The benefit — or at least one benefit — is the fact that religious people report being happier on average than nonreligious.

It’s a big gap, as you write. The average happiness gap between someone who goes to church weekly and someone who never goes to church is as large as the average happiness gap between the richest 20 percent of Americans and the poorest 20 percent.

Does this mean that nonreligious people and marginally religious people should, for the sheer sake of earthly satisfaction, consider becoming more religious?

Mr. Porter: No.

Religious belief contributes to happiness and well-being by providing social glue to bond groups together. The investments required to participate — from dietary restrictions to, in some societies, mutilation — wall religious groups off from the rest of society, protecting their investment from uncommitted free riders. The rules might contribute to happiness as they lead believers to drop unhealthy behaviors, like alcohol abuse. More importantly, the walls foster trust and solidarity, which allow mutual support networks to emerge. And the enclosed nature of the system reinforces collective belief sets –satisfying believers’ need to belong.

But religion does not guarantee higher well-being under any circumstance. Religious belief helps people cope with sudden unemployment. But divorce can distress believers much more than non-believers. Devout Americans aren’t happier than their secular fellow citizens just because religion confers some benefits in terms of mutual support and insurance. Secular Americans also suffer from being marginalized in a predominantly believing nation. When was the last time an atheist ran for high office in the United States?

Mostly, adherence to a religious faith is not a matter of individual choice. More often it is a decision taken by our forebears before we were born. Fortunately for the secular, there are other ways to improve one’s happiness. Higher income is associated with higher happiness. So are more free time and emotional attachments. Surveys may suggest that religious Americans are happier than those of a secular disposition. But surveys also suggest that Danes, a bunch of heathen unbelievers by American standards, are happier than Americans. And this is despite being poorer.

One thing to keep in mind is that the benefits conferred by religion have little or nothing to do with the specific nature of the religious belief. It’s all about creating a walled garden with onerous rules of behavior that will allow trust to flourish inside. This presumably could be achieved through a secular belief set. Though maybe that would amount to inventing a new religion.

Q. Perhaps the single most uncomfortable topic involving prices is the idea that you can put a value on a human life. As you note, the E.P.A. has valued a human life at $7.5 million. People just instinctively recoil. How can you persuade someone that this framework is actually a useful one?

Mr. Porter: This kind of evaluation is more common than we care to admit. ...

"Success Made Simple: An Inside Look at Why Amish Businesses Thrive" - Book Review

When you think of getting business advice, what comes to mind? Subscribing to the Harvard Business Review? Visiting the local Small Business Administration office? Reading a book by Donald Trump? How about visiting your local Amish community? If you haven’t considered the latter, maybe you should.

There has been a significant uptick in business formation for the Amish in recent years. It is estimated that an Amish business has a 95% chance of being open after five years (run by people who have no more than a formal 8th-grade education.) The rate for the general population is about 50%. What might we learn from the Amish? That is what Erik Wesner wanted to know, so he conducted in-depth interviews with Amish from several communities. What he discovered is the subject of his new book.

Success Made Simple: An inside Look at why Amish Businesses Thrive isn’t exactly what I expected, but that isn’t a criticism. I was expecting more of a comparative study. Instead, Wesner interviews various Amish business owners and looks for themes about their success. Clearly, community plays a big role. The Amish resistance to prideful behavior helps restrain some excesses that too many small business owners fall prey to. There are lessons about the importance of frugal living. There are important lessons about seeing your work in terms of transcendent reality. That has implications for how you relate to employees and customers. Wesner uncovers all this with some delightful and entertaining narrative.

It occurred to me as I read the book that there may be at least three factors that may work to the advantage of the Amish:

First, business studies show that the most important determinant of whether someone succeeds in business is whether or not one of their parents was a business owner. The Amish have traditionally grown up working in the family farm business. That develops both the work ethic and the acumen to manage an operation.

Second, the most critical juncture at which businesses fail is when they try to leap from being a fledgling operation to a significant producer. Business school case studies are rife with stories of businesses that tried to expand too quickly without enough capital. The Amish model tends to tap down grandiose visions and ambitions toward more practical expansion. Furthermore, it appears that many of the businesses are not amenable to large-scale production in the first place.

Third, there is a tight-knit support community. As Wesner points out, there is competition between the Amish, but there are also strong community ties of mutual support. A key factor in the failure of small businesses is an insufficient support network for the business owner.

The book is a fascinating read. The book has raised my interest in business in the Amish world, and I recently purchased Donald Kraybill’s book about Amish Enterprise. Wesner’s book is a great read for anyone looking for a window into Amish life and their business life in particular.

"Jesus Manifesto" - Book Review

I’ve often heard business coaches say that the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. As Christians, what is the main thing for us? Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola suggest in Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ is the main thing … or, in this case, the main person.

Sweet and Viola recount several subtle ways we substitute penultimate concerns for loving and serving Christ. Church institutions, justice, church doctrines, or any number of other worthy concerns overtake our pursuit of Christ. As I read the book, I was reminded of a lesson I once learned: Even our love of God can become idolatrous. We fall in love with the feeling of being in love with God. What some call the dark night of the soul is sometimes God withdrawing from us to make us hungry for him rather than for our attachment to our feelings. Maybe we need a few more dark nights to awaken us from the subtle debilitating attachments we have made to things other than God.

At any rate, Sweet and Leonard do a great job at cutting through the static, calling us back to our first love. If having your comfort zone rattled is not something you think you can stand, then you should probably avoid this book. But if your hunger is for something deeper … something that seems missing from all the activity we associate with Christian life … Jesus Manifesto can point you in a helpful direction. The deeper thing is not a thing at all. It is Jesus Christ.

"The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves" - Free on Kindle

A few weeks ago, I mentioned a new book by Matt Ridley called "The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves." It turns out the book's Kindle version is free if you want it. Go here. (Of course, I found this out after getting the hard copy.) :-(

Update: As of the afternoon of the 16th, the price is now $12.99.

"Fair Trade? Its Prospects as a Poverty Solution" - Book Review

I was in my first semester of the M.B.A. economic development program at Eastern University twenty-three years ago. I took a required class that exposed us to development theories and presented worldwide case studies on development efforts. It was a semester-long immersion in futility. The class had its desired effect. I'm haunted by how easy it is to make things worse and how hard it is to foster sound economic development.

Today, many Christians motivated by concerns for compassion and justice are looking for ways to use their economic influence to help the poor. A very popular approach is to support fair trade goods. Fair trade coffee is probably one of the most popular examples. My denomination (Presbyterian Church, U. S. A.) is deeply involved with Equal Exchange through the Presbyterian Coffee Exchange. The aims are noble and inspiring. But having developed a skeptical eye early on, I'm always compelled to ask if a strategy like this works.

Recently my cyber-friend and economist at Henderson State University, Victor Claar, wrote a small book Fair Trade? Its Prospects as a Poverty Solution. Claar begins the book by presenting a brief overview of the modern coffee industry's development and dynamics. Two significant economic issues are the inelasticity of supply and demand, and the low barriers to entering the coffee-growing business. These two combine to create a volatile industry.

Next, Claar presents a brief history of the fair trade coffee movement and how it is intended to work. That is followed by a chapter that examines whether or not fair trade coffee can work as intended. In short, he concludes it cannot because of the way fair trade coffee works and the intrinsic dynamics of a commodity industry with low barriers to entry. In fact, paying select farmers a premium price can actually lock those farmers into production of commodities (ex., coffee) that they should be abandoning for more profitable products while simultaneously drawing other farmers into a market who would be better served by growing other crops. I encourage you to read the book to understand why this is so.

Claar concludes with a chapter on how we might respond. He offers some helpful perspectives, but I strongly resonated with this paragraph:

Speaking more generally, when poor countries grow rich, it rarely has anything at all to do with how many mouths they have to feed or the abundance of natural resources. Instead, across the globe, poor countries of all sizes, climates, and endowments begin to grow rich as two key factors increase. First, countries grow rich as their human capital improves. Human capital is the term economists use to describe the value that a country’s people possess through their accumulated experience and education. For example, there is little doubt that India’s recent growth explosion is due in large part to the education – including the knowledge of the English language – of its people. Second, countries grow rich as they invest in and accumulate physical capital: the machines, tools, infrastructure, and other equipment that make the product of each hour of physical labor more valuable.

That which both human capital and physical capital share is that they both transform the result of an hour of a person’s hard work into something of greater value. As the value of an hour of labor rises, employers gladly pay higher hourly rates, knowing that their bottom lines will be the better for it.

If we want to be effective agents in aiding the poor, we should focus our efforts in directions lending enhanced value of an hour of labor … (57)

Amen! Claar goes on to mention microlending efforts by organizations like Kiva as just one avenue, but there are others. I know of churches developing relationships with communities in emerging nations to learn from indigenous brothers and sisters how best to make their resources available to them.

When Victor approached me to review this book and write a foreward, I was more than happy to do so. I appreciate the book's irenic tone and the affirmation of concerned Christians trying to do the right thing with their economic decisions. But I also appreciate the concise, clear analysis Claar brings to evaluating the effectiveness of fair trade. If fair trade is a topic that captures your interest, I highly recommend you become acquainted with this volume.

"Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites...and Other Lies You've Been Told" - Book Review

Church attendance is plummeting. The youth are abandoning their Evangelical heritage in droves. The church has become too feminized, and men are leaving the church. Evangelicals behave no differently than the rest of the culture.

You've undoubtedly read similar headlines recently, but are they true? Enter Christians Are Hate-Filled Hypocrites...and Other Lies You've Been Told: A Sociologist Shatters Myths From the Secular and Christian Media by sociologist Bradley Wright of the University of Connecticut. Using the most reliable data sources, Wright takes us on an insightful journey through the statistical data that address these issues. He exposes the all too frequent statistical malpractice of the press and the misrepresentations by stalwart Evangelical advisers like Josh McDowell and the Barna Group. The actual shape of the evangelical world is frequently far different than the pundits portray.

The book is written in an accessible, conversational language with charts and graphs highlighting key points. You won't get lost in a lot of technical, sociological, and statistical minutia, but the book will give you enough insight to assess the claims made in daily headlines critically. While the book is targeted toward understanding the shape of the Evangelical world, it also touches on other Christian traditions. Anyone interested in Christianity, in general, will benefit from the analysis.

This book is a real treasure. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get beyond punditry and fear-based marketing campaigns to the real nature of religion in the United States.

William Easterly on "Portfolios of the Poor"

I read Portfolios of the Poor: How the World's Poor Live on $2 a Day earlier this year. It is a fascinating book. I suspect it will go down as a pivotal book in poverty policy.

Researchers collected financial diaries on the daily financial transactions of hundreds of poor families in India, Bangladesh, and South Africa. It is a bit dry and sometimes overwhelmed with data, but the book gives an unprecedented window into the complex financial lives of the poor in emerging nations. We tend to think of the poor as helpless victims and assume that their biggest problem is opportunities for saving and wealth creation. The book shows that cash flow management is the primary concern for the poor. One of my takeaways is the need for appropriate innovation and improvement in the financial instruments available to the poor, who are already remarkably resourceful ... and that frequently means principled and reliable social and government institutions. The ability to stabilize cash flow would create a platform for other innovations.

William Easterly gives a helpful overview of some learnings from the book Financial Access Initiatives.

Engaging Economics: New Testament Scenarios and Early Christian Reception - Book Review

(This review is also being posted on Jesus Creed. You are welcome to join the discussion there.) (Updated June 13, 2023: Edited for grammar, punctuation, and spelling.) 

A variety of anthropological lenses have been used to examine the New Testament world, but one lens remains relatively neglected … an economic lens. Scholars like Bruce Malina, K. C. Hanson, Douglas Oakman, and Justo Gonzalez are but a few that I've read that are trying to understand the economic world of the New Testament from the inside out. Now enters Engaging Economics: New Testament Scenarios and Early Christian Reception, edited by Bruce W. Longenecker and Kelly D. Liebengood.

Engaging Economics is a thirteen-essay collection examining the economic dimensions New Testament theology. (Most of the essays came from the Biblical Studies Seminar at the University of St. Andrews in the spring of 2008.) Half of the essays examine the role of economics in the New Testament, and the other half examines how Christians in the era immediately following the New Testament handled economic issues. It is particularly noteworthy that none of the contributors or editors receives any royalties from the book. All proceeds will be donated to World Vision.

Peter Oakes offers an opening essay that explores what economics means and discusses the sources of economic evidence. One of the big challenges is the temptation to project our twenty-first-century experience with a market economy back into the biblical context. What we would typically refer to as economic factors … supply and demand, utility, markets, etc. … were not categories through which the New Testament folks interpreted their world. There was no semi-distinct sphere known as the economy. Oakes writes:

“…For example, the nature of patron-client relationships ensured constant distortion of what we might expect to be market interaction. Distribution of resources was dependent much more on power relationships than on the market.” (11)

Many economists today see economics as a study of individuals' and societal entities' choices regarding limited resources. That may work for thinking about modern economies, but Oakes writes:

“… The focus on choice is problematic in a society where most economic activities are governed by custom or compulsion. I suppose it works fairly reasonably as long as one remembers that the choices lie with the powerful elite. The stress on incentives might be useful, but only if it is realized that, for most people, they were generally of an ‘offer you can’t refuse’ type. …” (11-12)

Oakes subscribes to the traditional characterization of economics as "the study of the allocation of scarce resources" to be the most helpful in analyzing ancient societies. (And if "scarce" is problematic to you in light of "abundance" theology, substitute "limited," and you will be approximating what economists have in mind.) It doesn't presume that people have a wide array of choices.

An important issue Oakes tackles is the view that elites ruled Rome while 99% of the population lived in abject poverty. Recent studies suggest there was more stratification than this, but it is hard to be precise. While society was hierarchical, status and wealth did not perfectly coincide. Referencing the work of Steven J. Friesen, Oakes suggests stratification likely looked something like this:

00.04%  Imperial elites

01.00%  Regional or provincial elites

01.76%  Municipal elites. Includes some merchants.

07.00%?  Moderate surplus resources. Includes some merchants, some traders, some freedpersons some artisans (especially those employing others), and military veterans.

22.00%?  Stable near subsistence (with reasonable hope for remaining above min. to sustain life.) Includes many merchants and traders, regular wage earners, artisans, large shop owners, freedpersons, and some farm families)

40.00%  At subsistence level (and often below minimum sustain life) Includes small farmers, laborers, artisans (esp. employed), wage earners, most merchants/traders, and small shop owners.

28.00%  Below subsistence level. Includes some farm families, unattached widows, orphans, beggars, disabled, unskilled day laborers, and prisoners. (30)

David Horrell, in his essay Aliens and Strangers?, further analyzes Friesen's work, concluding that approximately 80% of the population lived near or below subsistence levels. The way society was stratified is very similar to societies in pre-industrial emerging nations today. This general construct gives us some clues about the individuals and groups we encounter in the text of the New Testament.

There isn't space for me to review each essay, but here is a brief sampling to give a flavor.

John Kloppenborg presents Agrarian Discourse and the Sayings of Jesus. He focuses on three types of reciprocity: general (exchange between close kin and friends), balanced (quid pro quo market exchange), and negative (exploitive exchange). Kloppenborg examines "measure for measure" statements like Luke 6:37-38:

 ³⁷"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. ³⁸Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

These are drawn directly from the world of agrarian exchange and draw on balanced reciprocity … not values of mercy or justice … to make their ethical point. That is, they draw on the self-interest of the hearer to motivate them to action.

In Is God Paul's Patron? The economy of Patronage in Pauline Theology, David J. Downs takes on the metaphor of God as patron with Christ as broker. Examining the language and nature of the exchanges involved in Paul's metaphors, Downs concludes that Paul's metaphorical rhetoric has been misunderstood. Instead, Paul uses metaphors from the household context and fictive kinship, where God is the father, and we are God's children, not patron to client images.

One essay is devoted to the idea of holding things in common in Acts, but others also touch on this topic. There is also an examination of the economic dimension in James.

In the book's second half, the focus shifts to how the early church fathers read the texts. Longenecker presents an interesting essay on Galatians 2:10:

“All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.”

Is Paul referring to the poor in a particular geographic area, or is Paul making a broader theological statement about the poor? The former has tended to be the conclusion of modern interpreters, but Longenecker demonstrates that the early church fathers had the latter view.

Grant Macaskill draws us to the critique of Rome presented in Revelation, which includes a critique of their economic activity. Yet the early church fathers were virtually silent about the economic issues except in peripheral ways … sometimes being more interested in identifying the Antichrist rather than the critique. Macaskill says Revelation was focused on union with Christ and, "For this reason it is not to be primarily judged as an attack on Rome so much as a challenge to potentially complicit church." (259) He concludes, writing:

“… The trajectories of interpretation of Revelation among the early church fathers, however, suggest that full integration into the Roman economic system may not have been as troubling for the church as other aspects of Roman Life, notably idolatry. With the single exception of Tertullian, the evidence suggests a general tendency by the fathers to overlook the systemic importance of economics.” (259)

As I read this, I wanted to ask Macaskill in what sense he meant "systemic importance of economics." Without the records and constructs by which we do economic analysis today, what would systemic analysis look like? As Oakes notes, our modern economics concepts are very recent (a little over 100 years old.) I wonder if we are assuming a lens not present to John or the early Church fathers.

Another essay looks at the development of the idea of almsgiving. Yet another explores ascetic values from the Syriac Book of Steps.

The book is a great resource for exploring the economic dimensions of the New Testament. As with any scholarly work, the essays are meticulously footnoted, pointing readers to other resources for further study, and, as with any collection of essays, the significance of the articles will vary according to the reader's interests. For anyone wanting a more comprehensive ranging provocative reader, this certainly qualifies. It is a great read.

(Significant portions of Engaging Economics can be previewed at Google Books.)

Introverts in the Church - Book Review

Twenty years ago, I took the Myers-Briggs personality inventory as part of career counseling while in an unsatisfying job. When I met with my counselor, he informed me that 80% of the work I was doing in my present job was what the opposite of my personality loved to do. There was nothing wrong with the job. There was nothing wrong with me. We just weren’t suitable matches for each other. I’m an INTJ (heavy on the NT, light on the I and J.)

The experience opened my eyes to other aspects of my life … family, friendships, and even my relationship with God. My upbringing was in a large Church of the Nazarene congregation where worship services were designed to evoke strong emotional responses, frequently climaxing with an alter call. The absence of deep reflection and what I experienced as emotional manipulation in that culture contributed (along with some doctrinal differences) to my exit to the Presbyterian Church, USA, as a young adult … though I could not have made a connection between temperament and my frustration at that time. It wasn’t until I was in my thirties that I understood the role temperament plays in so many aspects of our lives.

Now comes Adam McHugh’s excellent book, Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture. Adam is a Presbyterian pastor and a spiritual director. While the book is targeted at introverts, it needs to be read by a broader audience … particularly those in congregational leadership. I’ve worked with several churches going through a visioning process. One of my perceptions is that many sticking points about vision for worship and programming are related to the temperaments of the people taking particular positions. People have frequently elevated their personal proclivities to the level of God’s ordaining decree. McHugh’s book is a breath of fresh air.

Extroversion and introversion are not mutually exclusive. McHugh likens it to being left-handed and right-handed. We all use both hands, but most of us have an innate proclivity toward one over the other. So it is with extroversion and introversion. Extroverts tend to draw energy from being with others and expend energy in isolation. Introverts are just the opposite. Extroverts tend to learn through a trial-and-error process of engagement with a variety of experiences and people. Introverts tend to learn through deep internal reflection on a more limited number of experiences and relationships. McHugh gives other delineations. Neither temperament is right or wrong. Both are needed.

McHugh astutely observes the domination of extroverted modes of relating in the Evangelical world. For that reason, many introverted Evangelicals feel deeply out of place in their church community. Introverts in the Church help introverts give voice to the discomfort they feel … I know he does for me. But it secondarily highlights how the church fails to effectively be a holistic community that brings together people of different temperaments because of deeply held assumptions that see extroversion as the normative way of leading, relating, and worshiping. 

In short, I think this book is a must-read for at least two audiences. First are introverts like me who need help making sense of their world. Second, are church leaders who want to create truly holistic communities that function with the full diversity of temperaments God has blessed us with. Thank you, Adam McHugh, for one of the most insightful books I’ve read on spiritual formation and Christian Community in a while.

Poor people are poor because they don’t have enough money

DefeatPoverty.com: Poor people are poor because they don’t have enough money

RECOMMENDED READING

Out of Poverty: What works when traditional approaches fail
by Paul Polak

Polak, a psychiatrist by training, shifted his full-time efforts to working on poverty over 25 years ago.  He founded International Development Enterprise to focus on helping small, developing country farmers earn more income.  IDE has already helped millions of very small farmers earn their way out of extreme poverty in countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ethiopia, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietname, Zambia and Zimbabwe. ...

... Here’s the tone of the book quoting from the preface:  “I hate books about poverty that make you feel guilty, as well as dry, academic ones that put you to sleep.  Working to alleviate poverty is a lively, exciting field capable of generating new hope and inspiration, not feelings of gloom and doom.  Learning the truth about poverty generates disruptive innovations capable of enriching the lives of rich people even more than those of poor people.”  Polak believes that we (in the West) are misinformed about why the rural poor stay poor and why most of our efforts don’t help them.

Polak’s Three Great Poverty Eradication Myths:

1. We can donate people out of poverty. ...

2. National economic growth will end poverty. ...

3. Big business will end poverty. ...

...Poverty experts argue that the poor are poor because (a) they don’t have power; (b) they are uneducated; (c) they get sick/disease too often; (d) they need clean water; (e) they need better seeds/fertilizer (or no fertilizer); etc. etc. etc. and the granddaddy of all … they need ALL of these things before they can have any hope of moving out of poverty.  Polak argues that “finding a practical solution requires a different strategy … finding the simplest single ‘lever’ capable of producing the biggest positive result.”  The answer is – increasing income. ...

Here are some additional highlights that I gleaned from this book:

• 800 million people live on developing country small farms.  Vast majority of these $1/day people have one-acre farms with poor soil and no irrigation.  Their main crops are rice, wheat and corn and they usually can’t produce enough to feed themselves.  If they have access crops left over when they sell it in the market, these crops rarely generate more than $200/acre which isn’t sufficient to move them out of poverty.  Hence, they are stuck indefinitely.

• Get on the ground with the poor.  We spend so little time actually gathering first hand data from the poor.  So many “solutions” are designed from behind desks often 1,000’s of miles away. Get close, observe and ask questions and you will see the simple and obvious things that are needed and can be done in a specific context.

• Affordability is #1.  The poor must be able to afford to pay fair market price for the tools to enable them to earn more income.  This is the ONLY solution that will scale to help millions and will keep on being available.  The measurable benefits must be realized in months and ROI within a year.  For products designed to serve the poor, “Affordability isn’t everything.  It’s the only thing.”

• Price subsidies make things worse.  He argues with examples of how subsidizing goods and services almost always ends us making poor people worse off … and this includes food.

• The green revolution will come later to small farmers.  First they need to get affordable irrigation.  Then they need to have enough savings/income to afford the more expensive inputs.  And then they need to have enough resources to not be financially devastated if there is ten-year flood/drought.  So, it will come, but later.

"God's Battalions" - Book Review

Rodney Stark says the prevailing wisdom concerning the Crusades goes something like this:

During the Crusades, and expansionist, imperialistic Christendom brutalized, looted, and colonized a tolerant and peaceful Islam. (8)

But is this true? Rodney Stark examines this thesis in God Battalions: The Case for the Crusades.

Stark begins by exploring characterizations of Muslim culture at that time. He notes that Muslim conquest was accomplished largely through small but superior Arab forces that set up military occupation in regions they conquered. By treaty, regions officially become Muslim. Yet, in most regions, it was 250 years before 50% of the population became Muslim. Furthermore, the historical record shows that most of the great advances in science and other intellectual pursuits came from the dhimmi, the people under the "protection" of the Muslim rulers … in most cases, Eastern Christians. The Muslims had the works of the Greeks but tended to treat  writings on science, much like the Qur'an… something to which all observations must conform, not as foundations for future exploration and revision. He relates the treatment of Christians and Jews by Muslim leaders.

The rest of the book is Stark walking us through the various crusades, exploring the motivations, events, and outcomes. He hardly paints a flattering picture of the womanizing violent knights of Europe. But he shows that the Crusaders' motivations were neither plunder nor colonization (a somewhat anachronistic idea) but genuine desire to protect the Holy Land for Christian pilgrimages and to protect pilgrims from constant harassment and slayings at the hand of local forces. 

Stark shows how historians have frequently distorted events. For instance, it is pointed out that when the Christians conquered Jerusalem, they slaughtered the inhabitants, but when the Muslims retook Jerusalem, they sold some into slavery and let others go. However, when the Christians laid siege to Jerusalem, the inhabitants would not surrender. When the Muslims laid siege to the city, the inhabitants surrendered. In both cases, Christians and Muslims acted according to the custom of the day. The same Muslim forces that were" gracious" at Jerusalem wiped out other cities that would not surrender. Stark also notes that there is a widely held myth that the Crusades have been a festering sore spot for Muslims for centuries. In fact, this meme appeared at the end of the nineteenth century as European powers began to take an interest in the Middle East and were probably built on eighteenth-century Enlightenment proponents' attempts to discredit the Catholic Church.

Again, Stark's analysis neither defends nor condones the mindset and actions of the Crusaders. It is rather the mischaracterization of both Christian and Muslim history that he takes issue with. Written in Stark's characteristic engaging style, it is a great read for anyone wanting better insight into this era's history.

"Have a Little Faith" - Book Review

I recently finished reading Have a Little Faith: A True Story by Mitch Albom. Unlike Tuesdays with Morrie or The Five People You Meet in Heaven, this latest book is non-fiction. It relates his experiences with a rabbi, who asks him to do his eulogy when he dies, and an ex-convict turned pastor of an urban congregation ministering to the destitute.

The book tells how these men acted in trust and with dependence on God, trusting God for what they could not understand. It shows how God transformed their lives and the lives of those around them in meaningful ways. We see all this through Albom's somewhat secularized and suspicious eyes as he relates these men's impact on him.

The book ends with Albom's eulogy and funeral for the rabbi. As I read it, it reminded me of advice from someone years ago: write your own eulogy and then work backward to today to find guidance for your life.

Through the stories of these two men, Albom opens a window into our own lives. The book invites us to reflect on what is shaping our lives (and thereby the lives around us) and on whom we have placed our faith. It is a great read, and I highly recommend it.

"When Helping Hurts" - Book Review

One of my interests over the years has been community and economic development. Twenty years ago, when I was studying at Eastern University, getting an M.B.A. in economic development, we read many books about the topic. I’ve read a number since. There have been several good books, but I recently read one I want to recommend to those interested.

When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor … and Yourself by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. The blurb on the back of the book says:

When Helping Hurts reveals the painful truth about poverty. But it does more than tell you what not to do. The book moves from foundational concepts about poverty (Who are the poor?), to principles (Should we do relief, rehabilitation, or development?), to strategies (How can we help the poor domestically? Internationally?)

The book is a relatively short read, but it is intended for a lay audience and gives a wonderful introduction into thinking about development issues from a Christian perspective. It even has a chapter that challenges us to rethink what we are doing with our short-term mission trips.

I suspect I’m not as theologically conservative as the authors, but I readily embrace how they have processed the issues through a Christian lens. I’ve recommended the book to several people, so I thought I would recommend it here to you as well.

"Deep Church" - Book Review

Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional

Just over ten years ago, my friend Steve told me he was part of a core group that wanted to plant a church in my neighborhood, not far from downtown Kansas City, MO. He wanted to know if I knew of a place they could meet. I suggested the unused third floor of our church building. That was the beginning of Jacob’s Well, an emerging congregation pastored by Tim Keel.

The struggling Presbyterian (PCUSA) congregation of which I was a part played the supporting role of landlord and cheerleader from 1998 until 2003 to the newer merging congregation. In 2003, the Presbyterian congregation dissolved and sold the facility to Jacob’s Well. Jacob’s Well now has three Sunday worship services and a vibrant ministry presence in the community.

I found a lot in common with Jacob’s Well and the questions they wrestled with. I’ve attended a couple of Emergent Village events. I’ve attended local discussion groups. I continue to read books, articles, and blogs by several key personalities connected with the emerging church (of which Emergent Village is but one expression.) There is also a community of Emergent folks inside the PCUSA called Presbymergent that I follow. I’ve been at least at the edge of the emerging church movement since before it … well … emerged. So what is the emerging church all about? 

Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional is a book by Jim Belcher, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Newport Beach, CA. Belcher offers a brief account of how the emerging church came to be and acquaints readers with the significant contours of at least the American expression of it. I like his characterization of the emerging church movement as a desire for what C. S. Lewis called mere Christianity or “deep church.”

Belcher lays the defining features of traditional Evangelicalism and characterizes the Emerging church as a protest movement against Evangelicalism’s cooption by Modernism. While many emerging church folks share some common critique of traditional Evangelicalism, Belcher identifies three types of responses:

The Relevants. Still hold to traditional theology but believe that worship and ministry need a serious makeover for the message to become more relevant to the postmodern world.

The Reconstructionists. Tend to be influenced by Anabaptist “resident aliens” perspectives and a desire to return to a pre-Constantinian early church model … they hold to more orthodox views of Scripture but see a need for more radical change in mission and ecclesiology.

The Revisionists. They are questioning core theological understandings and virtually every other aspect of what has historically been known as Christian. This third group includes some key leaders of the Emergent Village and is the group that most people first think of when the “emerging church” moniker is mentioned. (It is also safe to say that most Mainline Christians who call themselves emerging are of this camp.)

Over the last two-thirds of the book, “Protest, Reaction and the Deep Church,” Belcher walks us through seven key issues the emerging church is protesting. With each, he explains how traditional Evangelicalism has responded to the protest and then how he sees Deep Church as a response. The book is written in a very engaging, gracious conversational style, with Belcher offering considerable autobiographical accounts that relate to his journey and the formation of the church he planted.

I think Belcher has his finger squarely on the pulse of what is happening with the emerging church. He offers some insights into how church could be done differently that escapes some of the Evangelical versus emerging church conflict, as well as some useful insights about church that have applications beyond that conversation.

The book also really taught me why I always feel like an outsider to the emerging church conversation. My frame of reference is Mainline Christianity, which has a different set of Modernist baggage than Evangelicals. Postmodernism presents major challenges here as well. The only “emerging church” conversation I find is with those who identify strongly with Belcher’s Revisionist group. I’m not a Revisionist. Go to any emerging church venue that Revisionists don’t dominate, and it’s like walking in on someone else’s family squabble (i.e., Evangelicals versus Emerging). Where is the conversation for non-Revisionist mainliners who aren’t Hauerwas Anabaptists or McLaren social progressives but see the need for a serious rethinking of what it means to be the church? This is not a criticism of Belcher’s book but rather an acknowledgment of how his clarity helps bring other issues into focus.

If you want to get a handle on what the Evangelical and emerging church controversy is about, and gain considerable insight into alternatives to the controversy, you need to read this book. It is one of the best two or three books I’ve read on the emerging church movement. Hat’s off to Belcher for a very important contribution to the conversation.

"The Lost World of Genesis One" - Book Review

What to make of Genesis 1? I've never considered the chapter a straightforward historical account of creation. To the degree that the passage is about historical events, it had to be an accommodation to a pre-scientific culture … as evidenced by passages like verses 6-8. But maybe the passage … taking into the cultural accommodation … still concords with what we know about the scientific record. The general sequence of events is remarkably similar to the order in which scientists understand the world to have developed. Hugh Ross has persistently championed this concordist view and Reasons to Believe. I've read several of his books and find much of his analysis intriguing, but several aspects of his theories are just too big of a stretch. Then, of course, it is entirely possible that the passage doesn't correspond with historical events. It is a literary device to communicate some basic theological truths about origins but little more (i.e., Framework Hypothesis). This is probably the most commonly held view by many within my Mainline PCUSA world. This has always seemed a real possibility to me, but I haven't been able to shake the sense that there was more going on with this passage than crafting great literature. In short, I've never found a key that satisfactorily makes sense of the Genesis 1 … until now.

I've just finished reading John H. Walton's The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate. Walton is a professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College and an expert in ancient Near Eastern (ANE) culture (a topic I've been trying to better acquaint myself with in recent years.) Walton points out that there was no distinction between "natural" and "supernatural" in the ANE. The gods and not natural laws ran the cosmos. This is significant for ontology … the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of being. Walton proposes that post-Enlightenment folks like us are heavily disposed to think in terms of "material ontology," while the ancients thought in terms of "functional ontology."

Walton asks to consider a chair. We examine its physical properties to ascertain whether it is a chair. This is material ontology. But what do we mean when we say a corporation exists?

Does a company exist when it has filed the appropriate papers of incorporation? Does it exist when it has a building or website? In some sense the answer to these would have to be yes. But many would prefer to speak of a company as existing when it is doing business. (23)

The corporation is understood to "exist" only when it exhibits its function. This is functional ontology.

Walton turns to the phrase tohu wabohu in 1:2 ("fromless and empty" in NRSV). The central point here is not that the earth was barren. The issue is that it served no function. Days one through three describe the establishment of functions, and days four through six describe the installment of functionaries. The functions relate to the three basic needs of humanity: Time, weather, and food.

• Day 1: Time Measurement (light and darkness)
• Day2:  Weather (expanse between waters above and below)
• Day3:  Food (formation of land with vegetation)
• Day 4: Celestial bodies function to mark off days, seasons, and years.
• Day 5: Sky and water creatures are told to be fruitful and multiply… their function is to fill the environments for which they've been created.
• Day 6: Various creatures are "produced by the land" that (like the plants on day 3) reproduce according to their kind … new generations emerge as a function of the previous generations.

Of course, the climax of day six is the creation of humanity … God's supreme functionary with the most important function. Humanity is to exercise dominion over all that God has created. Walton challenges the notion that the repeated phrase "it was good" had to do with assessing aesthetic beauty. Instead, the text refers to the fact that these things served their function, namely, to serve humanity, which in turn serves God. But there is more.

Walton notes that the climactic end in the ANE creation stories was when the gods built their temples and "rested." Rest was not in the sense of becoming idle and taking a siesta. Instead, rest meant ceasing extraordinary labor and settling into life's natural, peaceful ongoing rhythms. So here is Walton's revelation. Creation is God's temple:

"' Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things so they came into being?' Declares the Lord." (Is. 66:1-2a)

On the seventh day, God "rests" from his work and resides within his temple … the earth … with his co-regent human functionaries exercising dominion over all God has made. The Genesis 1 story is not an account of how various material items came into existence but rather an account of the inauguration of God's temple. Walton calls his understating the cosmic temple inauguration view.

The interpretive problem for us is that we are deeply immersed in the post-Enlightenment fixation on material origins. It is not that the ancients would be incapable of thinking about material origins, but they would undoubtedly have been perplexed by the question. What useful purpose would such knowledge serve? The issue is what function things serve and who established their functions.

In light of this, young earth creationism and concordist theories are way off the mark because both presume the text is about material ontology. The Framework Hypothesis may get a little closer to the mark, but even here, there is an assumption that the text is poetically dealing with material origins. The richness of understanding is severely restricted. 

Peter Inns sums up our problem well in a recent post on his blog:

If I may continue a rather reductionistic analysis (which is not accurate on the level of historical analysis, but is alive and well, nonetheless—indeed, perpetuated—in some popular circles): liberals looked at our developing knowledge of the ancient world of the Bible and said "A ha, I told you. The Bible is nothing special. Israelite religion is just like any other ancient faith. You conservatives need to get over yourselves." The fundamentalist response was (fingers firmly planted in ears) "La la la la la la, I do not hear you. There may be a millimeter of insight in some of what you are saying, but if what you are saying is true, our theology—which is the sure truth of Scripture, handed down through the ages—is false, and that is unthinkable."

Battle lines were drawn rather than theological and hermeneutical principles reassessed. ...

Walton has given us a careful reassessment of looking at the text through ancient Near Eastern eyes. I've given you only a cursory overview. The book is laid out in a series of eighteen propositions that build his cosmic temple inauguration view. The book is written for non-specialists and is relatively short. I read it in afternoon. It is, without a doubt, the most helpful book I've read on the topic.

Scot McKnight is starting a discussion of the book in a series of posts beginning this week (I believe) on his Jesus Creed blog. I highly recommend you get a copy and join the conversation.

"Money, Greed, and God" - Book Review

Doesn’t my wealth make someone else poor? Aren’t we exhausting the earth’s resources? Isn’t capitalism based on greed? Hasn’t Christianity always opposed capitalism? The answer to all of these questions is “no.”

For centuries people believed odors carried diseases and were certain that the earth was a flat area surrounded by water. The surface evidence is quite compelling. While we consider most adults who hold such beliefs today a bit daft, one can hardly blame our ancestors.

Yet when it comes to economic issues, many intellectuals and theologians embrace the equivalent of “flat earth” economics … all the while dismissing those who contradict “self-evident” realities as nefarious characters with sinister agendas. (It doesn’t help that intellectuals like Ayn Rand and her groupies successfully sold the myth that capitalism is grounded in selfish ambition … supposedly building on Adam Smith’s legacy, a gross misreading of Smith.) Answering “no” to the questions above is a bit like being a modern-day Copernicus or Galileo. So short of earning a degree in economics, how might we escape “flat earth” economics and get a grip on the counter-intuitive realities we have uncovered over the years?

Jay Richards has just published Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism is the Solution and Not the Problem. This book is an excellent corrective to “flat earth” economic thinking. His clear and engaging writing (and sense of humor) make his work accessible to everyone.

The book opens with Richards sharing his life story. He tells of his early embrace of radical leftist ideals in pursuit of the Kingdom of God and how he came to his present views on capitalism. (A biography with which I have some things in common.) He masterfully explains some of the issues I’ve visited here repeatedly at the Kruse Kronicle (see my Economic Fallacies Christians Believe. In fact, it was hearing him speak once that inspired me to develop my series.) His review of the church’s history regarding usury was particularly interesting to me … both in economics and biblical hermeneutics. Great quotes are highlighted throughout the book, like the one by the founder of OPEC, who said, “The Stone Age came to an end not for a lack of stones, and the oil age will end, but not for a lack of oil.” (191) (He was highlighting the danger of projecting present realities into the future without regard for the impact of continuous human innovation.) Throughout the book he identifies eight economic myths.

Richard’s blatant endorsement of capitalism will immediately offend some readers. The term is frequently used to describe the entire U.S. socio-political-economic milieu. This everyday use is not in mind here but rather its basic meaning within economics as “… an economic system with rule of law and private property, in which people can freely exchange goods and services.” (163)

In fact, Richards takes to task the notion that consumerism is necessary for capitalism. One of his more insightful observations was that consumerism is less connected with the biblical sin of greed and more with the sin of gluttony. This goes back to my long-held conclusion that we have no theology for living in affluence. Throughout biblical and much of Church history, our theology was done in eras of considerable scarcity among the masses. But today, we have societies where the masses live in great affluence. Like people who have lived on the edge of survival for years and suddenly find themselves blessed with an endless cornucopia, we don’t have traditions and life patterns that control our appetites from unhealthy indulgence.

Friends occasionally ask me for recommendations for books that address economic issues from a Christian perspective. I have a handful of favorites, but few cogently address the particular question of capitalism as well as this book. In the future, when others ask me what I think about capitalism, with few reservations, I can hand them this book and say, “Here. Read this.”

 

 

"The God I Don't Understand: Reflections on Tough Questions of Faith" - Review

Two years ago, I read Christopher Wright's The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative, and it immediately went to the top of the list of the most important theology books I've ever read. Now comes The God I Don't Understand: Reflections of the Tough Questions of Faith. It is a much shorter book tightly focused on four issues. While not nearly as panoramic as Mission of God, it is a great book.

Wright acknowledges that there are some things in theology for which we simply have no complete answers. God has chosen not to make his motivations and purposes clear. Eleven chapters are addressing four questions of this kind:

1. What about evil and suffering?
2. What about the Canaanites?
3. What about the Cross?
4. What about the End of the World?

If you've never read Wright, he has an engaging, readable style. He exhibits it here once again. I appreciate how he explores each issue, helping the reader sort out what we know from scripture and what we don't know.

All sections of the book are very well done, but I particularly appreciated his observations about the end of the world, especially the last chapter on the "New Beginning." This is one of the most coherent, simple-to-read discussions of eschatology. I liked it so much that I'll begin a short series of posts reviewing his ideas on this topic on Thursday.

Wright makes a great contribution toward helping us come to grips with some of the most difficult theological questions, both for our own faith journey and for being able to share our faith with others. I give this book my strongest endorsement.

(Note: One thing this book has me wondering. Christopher Wright references N. T. Wright in this book. Then he references another scholar named Nigel Wright. Is there some kind of Wright-wing conspiracy going on in England? :-) )

The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart

Index

• The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing us Apart
• Geography vs. Demography
• The Psychology of the Tribe
• Post-Materialism
• Seeds of the New Partisanship
• Economic Consequences
  
• Segmenting Religion
• Advertising
• Lifestyle
• Idea Segregation
• Unsorting?
• Final Thoughts

From Eternity to Here: Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God

The various books of the Bible give witness to an unfolding story, but they do not do so in a neat narrative format. What is the storyline that holds these pieces together, and what might the storyline tell us about the purposes of God?

Frank Viola addresses these questions in From Eternity to Here: Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God. He identifies three storylines:

• God as the passionate lover seeking after his wayward bride.
• God establishing his home on the earth.
• God’s creation of a “new species” in the form of the body of Christ.

The book draws upon the full range of scripture to demonstrate how these storylines are interwoven throughout the various biblical witnesses. I wanted to take issue with one conclusion here and another interpretation there, but I very much appreciated the general thrust of what the book communicates. It is a refreshingly transcendent view beyond the myopia of the gospel as personal fire insurance or self-help therapy.

As I’ve said before, while I don’t always come to the same answers Viola comes to, I do like his questions. This book is no exception. If you don’t like Viola’s answers, this book will hopefully at least press you toward clarifying how you understand the ageless purpose of God.

The pleasures and sorrows of work

The Economist: The pleasures and sorrows of work

The oddities of the daily grind

ALAIN DE BOTTON is a British essayist, novelist and, if one uses the term somewhat expansively, philosopher. Over the past decade or so he has cast a world-weary eye over travel, status and architecture, as well as writing a fine book about philosophers and an excellent meditation on Proust. His new book, “The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work”, takes on that odd thing that most of us do for so many of our waking hours on Earth. ...

... First of all, Mr de Botton is rather witty. Here, for instance, is what he has to say about the swimming pool at his Mojave desert hotel (where he has repaired in the course of a visit to a scrapyard for aeroplanes): “Unfortunately, most of the budget for the pool had apparently been squandered on proclaiming, in an enormous illuminated display by the roadside, that it existed, leaving few resources for it actually to do so.”

Secondly, Mr de Botton is surely right when he reminds us that we rarely if ever think about where our Moments and our fluffy slippers, our 16-gigabyte iPhones and our Thai red chicken curry ready-meals come from, or what an immense concatenation of individual efforts is required to ensure that a fish swimming in the Indian Ocean off the Maldives can be converted, in a couple of days, into individually packaged tuna steaks in the refrigerated-foods aisle of a supermarket in the Bristol suburbs. It is, of course, a marvel, and Mr de Botton rightly marvels at it.

And finally, the author has plenty of thought-provoking things to say about work itself, the most absurd examples of what he scathingly calls “the culmination of a long history of the division of labour, which began in Ancient Egypt three millennia ago”. Unlike other animals, we need not struggle to find our next meal. But instead of using the time to master Swedish or calculus, we often choose to devote it to the utterly banal.

Yet even the most soulless of offices has its vital part to play. The “start of work means an end to freedom, but also to doubt, intensity and wayward desires... How satisfying it is to be held in check by the assumptions of colleagues, instead of being forced to contemplate, in the loneliness of the early hours, all that one might have been, and now never will be.” This last observation seems so heartfelt, so poignantly rendered, that one can only advise Mr de Botton himself to cease his solitary endeavours and take the plunge into the pleasures of office life.

"Enough" - Book Review

You may have noticed we’ve entered some financially challenging times lately. (It has been in all the papers … those that are still printing.) The challenges we face can be quite disorienting. It’s scary. We may now realize that the way we oriented our life was unhealthy, but what would a healthy approach to finances look like?

Enter Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity. Enough is the latest book by Adam Hamilton, pastor of the Church of the Resurrection (United Methodist) in suburban Kansas City. Hamilton offers some helpful wisdom on financial practices in this little gem (barely 100 pages). This is not a theological treatise on wealth, a moralistic pamphlet on the evils of material goods, nor a gimmicky self-help guide. Hamilton looks squarely at the impact of “affluenza” and fear on our lives and challenges us to rediscover God’s purpose for us and to find our identity in him.

The three themes permeating the book are trusting God, offering gratitude, and living a life of service and generosity to others. In some ways, they are so simple. Yet they are deceptively hard to live out. The book offers practical spiritual and financial practices that help inoculate us from affluenza and fear and bring us closer to God.

The book is exceptionally well written. While I think it applies to people of all ages, it struck me that this book might benefit young adults in setting up their own lives. It would make an excellent high school or college graduation gift. If your congregation gives graduation gifts in May at $8 a piece (at Amazon), this book might be something you should consider.

I encourage you to pick up a copy for yourself.

The Best Book on the Market - Book Review

I’m convinced that one of the most misunderstood concepts in the modern world is markets. Too often portrayed by advocates as the handmaiden of God that will usher in his Kingdom and reviled by detractors as the handmaiden of the Anti-Christ perverting people into avarice-driven malevolence, its true benefits and limitations are rarely appreciated. Markets are far from having messianic qualities, but markets have played a central role in the expansion of material well-being, first in the West and then worldwide in recent years. 

If you want to get a handle on how markets work, I suppose you could take a class in introductory economics or maybe read an economics textbook. A more direct and less time-consuming approach might be to read Eamonn Butler’s recent short book, The Best Book on the Market: How to Stop Worrying and Love the Free Economy. It is a wonderful 150 primer on what markets are and how they work, written in words and using examples that any layperson can understand.

So many debates about economics in religious venues are almost exclusively focused on distribution matters. It is all but taken for granted that wealth and goods simply exist; our mission is to distribute them equitably. Certainly, distribution is an important question, but this leaves out one of the foundational economic questions each society must ask: How many of which things shall we produce today? The answer to that question is changing by the nano-second. There must be a dynamic feedback loop to have a large complex economy function. There must be real-time changes to incentives to discourage the supply of some goods versus others.

The myopic distributionist view tends to see the world as a snapshot. “Too much wealth here and not enough there? Simple. We’ll just rearrange the elements in the snapshot.” While a snapshot tells us important information about the world, the economy is not static. It is a motion picture. A deeply distorted view of the world emerges without viewing the snapshot in terms of the frames that lead up to its existence and how rearranging elements will impact the frames that follow. Policy made based on the snapshot alone can be highly destructive, yet this is precisely how some activists work.

Markets are far from perfect, but neither are they based on greed. They’re based on win-win transactions where each party gives up something they value less than what they trade for. They orient us toward looking for how we can serve others. They tie our common welfare together.

Butler brings the dynamism of the market to life in his book in short order. I’m guessing many readers could read the book in an afternoon. It is a great little book, and I highly recommend it.

"Economic Parables" Book Review

Jesus had much to say about wealth and possessions. His parables make a variety of implicit and explicit statements about the economic aspects of our lives. Unfortunately, much of the teaching we receive from the pulpit and in popular Christian literature on the economic issues raised by these parables is simplistic moralization. I suspect this is because, most often, those teaching are either theologians with little knowledge of economics or thinkers who know economics but haven’t done extensive biblical study.

David Cowan’s Economic Parables: The Monetary Teachings of Jesus Christ provides some depth of thought about the economic implications of Jesus’ teaching. Cowan is a pastor and theologian with a Master of Theology from Oxford. He also has worked for twenty years as a bank executive and journalist for various business periodicals. His grasp of both theological and economic issues is well evidenced in his book.

Economic Parables is a collection of reflections on thirteen of Jesus’ parables. Cowan explores the basic contours of each parable and then offers some insight on what these parables might mean for the economic sphere of our lives. Each chapter ends with a list of other biblical texts to consider and questions that can be used for personal reflection or in a small group study. The book is non-technical and intended for a broad audience.

Unlike many theologians who write about markets in restrictive limiting terms, Cowan lifts market activity as something positive without idolizing particular views of economics. His discussion at the end of the book contrasting the difference between giving gifts and market exchange helps show why markets are so important yet insufficient for economic shalom.

I really like the book’s concept. Cowan is a good thinker and writer. I readily recommend this book.

Easterly Reviews Collier

The New York Review of Books: Foreign Aid Goes Military!

This is a book review of Paul Collier's The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It by William Easterly, the author of The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good. I think Easterly's book is still the best of the books I've read on Africa. In this lengthy review, Easterly takes Collier to task for his openness to military intervention in failing nations. I don't think Easterly's criticism invalidates the basic themes coming from Collier's research, but it does provide a helpful check on how we move from research to policy.

"Reimagining Church" - Book Review

Obsessions with buildings. Churches run like corporations. Command and control hierarchies with professional Christians dispensing services to passive spectators. Are these endemic to our contemporary church culture? Frank Viola thinks so, and he believes they are without biblical warrant.

Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity is Frank Viola’s follow-up to Pagan Christianity. The earlier book highlighted how many of our cherished traditions in the Church have little to do with the Bible or early Christianity. Viola explores how we might move from an institutional church model to a more organic form of Christianity communities in this work.

I’m not fully persuaded by all of Viola’s reasoning. Other scholars suggest that some formal church leadership structures emerged by the beginning of the second century. Scholars like Rodney Stark estimate that there were only a few thousand Christians at most scattered across the empire by 100 C.E. Elaborate institutional structures were not needed at this early stage. That would not preclude their emergence later as sociological dynamics changed.

However, Viola’s more significant point about the co-option of the Church by Greco-Roman structures as the Church moved into the fourth century is, I believe, an important discussion that needs more of our reflection. He correctly points out that the Reformation reformed our soteriology but left our ecclesiology unphased. We still have a ubiquitous Christian caste system with clergy in a higher caste and laity in a lower (and Viola correctly notes that this is not entirely, or even primarily, because pastors desire it to be so.) Former president of Princeton Seminary Tom Gillespie (and a colleague I serve with on the General Assembly Council of the PCUSA) tells me that the terms “clergy” and “laity” have no place in Reformed theology. Karl Barth said that laity was among the most destructive words in the Christian lexicon. And yet, we persist in the language in our PCUSA world and the baggage these conceptualizations entail.

Viola is an important leader within the growing American house Church movement. He doesn’t speak for everyone in this diverse movement, but if you want to have a good appreciation for what is developing among a number of Christians in America, Viola gives you considerable insight into the thinking and practice of many who have become disaffected with the traditional church milieu. So whether you agree with all he has to say, the book will likely push you to reflect more closely on your beliefs and practices concerning God’s mission and the nature of the Church. The book is well written, and I appreciate the window it is into this important emerging movement in American Christianity.

The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible - Book Review

The Blue Pararkeet: Rethinking How You read the Bible

Regular readers of Scot McKnight's Jesus Creed blog will know that McKnight is an avid birdwatcher. One day, while watching the birds in his backyard, he eyed a unique blue colored bird in the bushes. Wondering about the species of this unique visitor, he observed it for a while. Alas, it was just someone's escaped blue parakeet.

Yet what became particularly interesting to McKnight was the response of the other birds to this strange visitor. The sparrows were terrified. Movement by the parakeet would scatter the sparrows into a panicked frenzy. But after a while (the bird was around for a month), the other birds became more accustomed to the blue parakeet, joining it at the feeder. McKnight reports that he later saw it on the neighbor's roof with thirty other birds gathered around it. The other birds did not attempt to become like the blue parakeet, nor did they seek to make it conform to their behavior. The parakeet would occasionally startle the other birds with his unexpected behavior, but they became accustomed to his presence.

So what does the blue parakeet have to do with reading the Bible? Growing up in his Baptist setting, McKnight frequently heard the phrase, "God said it, I believe it, that settles it." The problem was that blue parakeets kept appearing. There are many instructions given in the Bible we do not follow in the sense New Testament Christians followed them. There are other instructions we ignore altogether. How to make sense of biblical instruction and apply it to our lives? McKnight writes:

When we see how we actually live, we have two choices: either to become radical biblical literalists and apply everything (and I mean everything), or to admit that we are "pickers and choosers." Since the evidence reveals that were are all adopters and adapters, we need to admit it and then seek to explain ourselves. That is what this book attempts to do. I hope others will join the conversation. (123)

Blue parakeets keep appearing that unsettle simplistic, formulaic interpretations. Blue parakeets come in the form of questions about divorce and remarriage, circumcision, "The style of Christian women," Sun-centered or Earth-Centered cosmology, the death penalty, and speaking in tongues. Thus the name of his latest book, The Blue Pararkeet: Rethinking How You read the Bible.

The book's thrust is to rediscover a narrative approach to reading scripture. McKnight identifies several pitfalls we regularly encounter when we fail to appreciate that the Bible is a testimony to God's unfolding story. McKnight sees oneness and otherness as central to the plot of the biblical narrative. Here are five "episodes," if you will:

• Creating Eikons (Genesis 1-2) - Oneness
• Cracked Ekions (Genesis 3-11) - Otherness
• Covenant Community (Genesis 12 - Malachhi) Otherness expands
• Christ , the Perfect Eikon, redeems (Matthew - Revelation 20) - One in Christ
• Consummation (Rev 21-22) - Perfectly one  (p. 67)

McKnight spends the first three-quarters of the book making his case for how we might rethink reading the Bible. I won't unpack all of that for you here. (Buy the book.) He devotes the book's last quarter to applying this perspective to the issue of women in church ministries. The book is written in McKnight's characteristically engaging style and is accessible to a wide audience. It strikes me that this book would make a great topic for a Sunday school class or a study group. It is a concise introduction to narrative theology and ethics for those who may have been intimidated by more academic works on the topic. I highly recommend it.

"Plowshares and Pruning Hooks" - Book Review

What will we make of the images presented to us in biblical prophecy? How literally or figuratively should we interpret them? How did prophetic language function for those who first heard these prophecies? Without a doubt, prophetic and apocalyptic literature is some of the most difficult to understand.

Recently I read D. Brent Sandy's Plowshares and Pruning Hooks: Rethinking the Language of Biblical Prophecy and Apocalyptic. It is one of the most helpful books I've read on interpreting these biblical genres. It is well-written and accessible to the non-academic reader.

Sandy is not concerned with helping us nail down the meaning of specific passages. Rather, Sandy takes us on a literature survey, focusing more heavily on the Old Testament than the New Testament. He shows us commonalities that exist within prophetic literature. His chapter on the common pairing of destruction and blessing is very helpful.

Sandy spends considerable time exploring how prophetic language works within the culture. He reminds us that these texts were written in oral cultures. Thus, the original audience did not read what we read but rather heard.

Prophetic and apocalyptic language was not merely a transfer of information. It was a language intended to engage us at the emotional gut level, transporting us into otherworldly visions of hope and glory and worlds of despair and devastation. The intent was to engender commitment and inspire action. You might say it is the difference between explaining how if we reflect on our past and contemplate the trajectory of our future in light of more eternal considerations, we can be motivated to change versus Dickens writing a story about a man named Ebenezer Scrooge. Poetic language is central to prophetic literature, and the author spends some time walking us through various metaphorical linguistic techniques.

Sandy points out that the three primary functions of prophecy were prosecution, persuasion, and prediction, in that order (although in the New Testament, prosecution becomes less prominent.) In our age, there is a near obsession with the predictive aspects of prophecy. To address this question, the author has a chapter on prophecies in the Bible that were fulfilled within the biblical era. He asks if, based on the prophecy, the original hearers would have been able to describe the specifics of future events accurately. The case studies run from what he calls the transparent to the translucent. Once a prophecy is fulfilled, it sometimes is clear that the language of the prophecy was hyperbolic poetry.

In some cases, prophecies that predicted impending events were not fulfilled until after considerable time lapses. Thus, precisely identifying specific people, places, and events in every biblical image is unwise. This is not to say that prophecy is just poetic symbolism without reference to actual future events. It is to say the prophecy's predictive quality is usually a translucent window into future events that are intended to inspire us to commitment and action, not an encrypted code to be cracked.

If figuring out what to do with prophetic and apocalyptic portions of the Bible is something you've struggled with, I would highly recommend this book.

"The Ghost Map" - Book Review

It is late August 1854 in the city of London. An infant girl becomes ill and dies a day later. Within a week, dozens more deaths are being recorded within the parish. Cholera has broken out. While cholera has been known in other parts of the world, the first epidemic to hit England came in 1831. Another serious epidemic hit just six years earlier, in 1848-1849. What action should be taken to combat the disease and halt the crisis? That all depends on your understanding of what cholera is and how it spreads.

The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World, written by Steven Johnson, is a history of the responses to the 1854 cholera epidemic. Written almost in the form of a mystery novel, it is a fascinating look into the interrelationship of science, public policy, consensus thinking, cultural values and prejudices, epidemiology, demographic statistics, and sociology (and I'm sure there are some other –ologies I've missed.)

The consensus view of both scientists and the public in 1854 was Miasma Theory: cholera is spread by odors and vapors. In recent decades, England had experienced considerable urbanization. The poor lived in sections of cities that make "unsanitary" seem like a gracious term. Wastewater was not separate from drinking water. Contamination of well water was the norm. The stench of the city, especially in the poor areas, was potent. Diseases and epidemics were much more prevalent in the environs of the poor. A correlation was made between the stench from these neighborhoods and disease prevalence. The poor were frequently blamed for their living conditions and, thus, the diseases.

Johnson quotes from Florence Nightingale's 1857, Notes on Nursing manual, where she emphasizes pure air as the single most important focus for a nurse in caring for patients. Ventilating rooms and evacuating sewers of vaporous matter were top priorities. Her experience during the Crimean War showed that such actions drastically reduced death from diseases, including cholera. The evidence was overwhelming that cholera was an airborne disease. Yet the interpretation of the evidence was completely wrong. Enter John Snow.

John Snow was an overachieving working-class boy who became one of England's most noted physicians and scientists. He was a pioneer in developing anesthesia. He was called upon by Queen Victoria to personally apply his techniques in the birth of her eighth child in 1853. From study of the 1848-1849 cholera epidemic and other studies, Snow had developed skepticism about the Miasma Theory. Not the least of his questions was why people who made their livings scavenging through the sewage amid all the vapors seemed no more affected by these vapors than others in the community. He immediately set to work when he became aware of the 1854 outbreak, starting blocks from his home.

Snow tirelessly tracked down the sequence of deaths, plotted their locations, interviewed survivors of the dead, and gathered details of each incidence, looking for commonalities and incongruities. He made extensive use of death registries. He would later map these out and create the famous Ghost Map, the graphic that illustrated the spatial relationship of the deaths. But his immediate conclusion was that the cholera epidemic was somehow connected with the Broad Street water well. He recommended to the local governing board that the pump handle be removed from the pump to stop use of the well. The board was incredulous of his conclusions but figured it couldn't hurt. In addition to their own actions, they removed the handle over the protest of many residents, and the epidemic subsided.

Snow continued to analyze the data and disseminate his findings in the weeks and months following the epidemic. Meanwhile, Henry Whitehead, the minister for the parish in which the epidemic had hit and a solid believer in the Miasma Theory, had kept a diary of his visits to the ill and dying in the parish. He began to scrutinize Snow's work and raised objections. Eventually, the back and forth between Whitehead and Snow convinced Whitehead of Snow's position. He even gave testimony along with Snow to Parliament in 1855. Government officials were dismissive.

In the years immediately following the epidemic, Snow is absent from the official record of what happened. The epidemic was still viewed as a result of vapors. Snow died in June 1858, and no comment is made in his obituary of his connection with the cholera epidemic. But ironically, it was in the summer of 1858 that London experienced the "Great Stink," apparently a heat inversion that trapped all the odors of the city to the ground for an extended period. According to the Miasma theory, there should have been a dramatic uptick in the various diseases associated with odors. But William Farr, the city demographer and strong critic of Snow, detected no changes.

The Great Stink did set in motion another important set of events. It finally got the government to allocate the money to clean up the Thames and install a water and sewage system that would bring fresh water into the city and take the wastewater out, thus improving the drinking water quality and removing the stench. The project was completed in 1865, but another episode of cholera broke out just as it was being completed. Miasma theorists immediately seized upon this as evidence that vapors were causing the illness because the new water system would have prevented contamination.

Rev. Whitehead was called in to join a team to investigate the outbreak. They quickly isolated the outbreak's origin using Snow's analysis and began to inquire about the water sources. It turned out that the water system had been put in place, but one last pumping station was still under construction as the epidemic broke out. The epidemic emerged from precisely this location. William Farr became a radical convert to the point that some believe he rewrote the history of Snow's impact on the situation between 1854 and 1866. It would not be until years later that the microscopic cause of the disease would begin to be detected.

In some ways, this story is not dissimilar to countless others I've read about scientific discovery and adaptation. What is unique is Johnson's exceptional storytelling skills. It is a wonderful example of how change occurs in society as it interacts with science. For this reason, and for its ability to transport us back to another era, the book is worth the read. But it also has valuable lessons for science and public policy today.

Open and vigorous debate about scientific questions is essential to making sound policy decisions. In 1854, the consensus about cholera that had emerged in England over the previous two decades was that vapors transmitted it. Snow, a top scientist, and physician of his time, was ridiculed as a fringe crackpot by most other scientists and politicians. The correlation between vapors and cholera was an indisputable link. Furthermore, the production of these vapors and orders dovetailed nicely with society's prejudices about the irresponsible poor and their living habits.

But imagine what would have happened if Snow had not challenged the consensus or if others had not furthered his challenges? What if, following the precautionary principle, England had invested fortunes in odor elimination and not addressed water supplies? The Miasma Theory was the best theory they had. What would future generations think of them for not acting to clear the air? Now in retrospect, what would we have thought of them today for investing so many resources in a pointless endeavor?

Today we have issues like global warming. We're told there is incontrovertible evidence that CO2 is causing global warming, despite the fact climatology is still in its infancy. The correlation between CO2 and warming makes the conclusion self-evident. Only crackpots and shills for special interests would challenge these settled facts. The idea of CO2 destroying the planet dovetails nicely with our prejudices about evil corporations wantonly destroying the environment in the name of capitalism. Even if we're wrong, we must invoke the precautionary principle and invest trillions of dollars to stop CO2 production today. What will future generations think of us for not addressing problems when we could have?

In the case of cholera, the Londoners lucked out in that their solution to getting rid of the stench also altered the water supply for the better. They achieved a good solution through false understanding. What if it turns out that warming is overwhelmingly in response to the sun's radiation and the investment in CO2 reduction turns out to have been pointless? What if it turns out that warming is indeed a problem, but the cause lies elsewhere, and the CO2 correlation is insignificant? All these funds will have been diverted from curing AIDS, curing diseases, developing clean water, or eliminating poverty. How will future generations judge our actions?

My point is that there is risk involved in whichever option you choose. That is why open dialog without demonizing dissenters is essential to making good public policy. Prudence, not zeal or denial, must be the dominant mode of behavior.

Ghost Map is a wonderful illustration of how science and public policy interplay. It is a very well-written and thought-provoking book. I highly recommend it.

"Making the Best of it: Following Christ in the Real World" Book Review

Who are we for Christ today? This is the central question for John Stackhouse's new book Making the Best of it: Following Christ in the Real World. And let me say from the outset that this is one of the most important books I've ever read on Christian ethics.

Stackhouse explains that:

“Christian ethics, then, is not primarily about what to do rightly or wrongly, but fundamentally about what it is to be Christian in the world, what is proper to the profession and practice of Christian faith. Being Christian in the world is an identity, a motive, an agenda, and a posture, all of which lead to action.” (4)

He goes on to explain later that:

I have written this book because Christians in North America, but also in Britain, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and other modern societies, typically encounter one or both of only two models of serious Christian engagement with the world and I think we need another – or, at least, most of us do. The one extant option is the option of cultural transformation, of totally reshaping society according to Christian values. This is the option espoused by the American religious right – and left. It is also expressed in the more refined accents of neo-Calvinism, the “world-formative” or “transformational” agenda of the tradition descending from Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck in the Netherlands of the late nineteenth century and extended into the twentieth century via Herman Dooyewood, D. H. Th. Vollenhoven, and Hans Rookmaaker. A similar movement is the approach of conservative Roman Catholicism, which seeks in its own way to influence culture along Christian lines and ideally to transform it into a thoroughly Christian enterprise … And liberation theologies, beginning with Gustavo Guiterrez and James Cone, articulate their respective social-transformational visions.

The main alternative on offer is the response of holy distinctiveness, of a definite Christian community living in contradistinction to the rest of society and thus offering the beneficial example and influence of an alternative way of life. In popular religious culture this shows up in Protestant sectarianism, whether in the enclaves of fundamentalism, the burgeoning but self-consciously marginal congregations of Pentecostalism, or the traditional communities of Mennonites, Amish and Hutterites. This option also has its sophisticated versions, particularly in the community of thought arising out of Anabaptist John Howard Yoder and his Methodist epigone Stanley Hauerwas, and more recently out of the movement  known as Radical Orthodoxy, identified with John Milbank, Catherine Pickstock, and others. Disgust with the religious right, and particularly with the comfortable alliance between evangelical Christianity and conservative politics, drives these Christians away from dubious cultural entanglements into fellowships of the dedicated that shine like cities on a hill above a plain on which Matthew Arnold’s confused armies war by night. From these places of integrity they offer what help they can to their neighbors while refusing any activity that would compromise their radical testimony to the gospel of new life. (5-6)

How might we conceive of an alternative to these options? Stackhouse turns to a heavily critiqued and generally out-of-favor source, namely H. Richard Niebuhr's Christ and Culture. Stackhouse acknowledges many criticisms of Niebuhr's work and even offers a few of his own. However, Stackhouse believes that some of the critiques of Niebuhr's work stem from confusion over typology versus taxonomy.

Niebuhr offers a typology (not a taxonomy) of five ways church and culture interact: Christ Against Culture, Christ of Culture, Christ Above Culture, Christ in Paradox With Culture, and Christ Transforming Culture. "A typology is a kind of pure intellectual construct, a setting out of logical possibilities in a situation." (32) One of the things about typologies is that they can usually be placed on a continuum or grid. Mixed types exist between the various pure or ideal types. "A taxonomy is a classification of things as they actually are in all their specificity." (32) Think "kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, species" here. The very aim of taxonomy is to eliminate gradations and mixed types. Many critics of Niebuhr's work have mistaken his typological constructs as a taxonomy. When the categorizations failed to be useful, they discarded Niebuhr's work altogether.

Few people or groups fit consistently within any typologies on all issues they encounter. Yet, most folks tend toward one of these modes as a dominant way of reconciling Christ and culture. Cultural context is a critical factor as well. If we live in Nazi Germany, we may feel drawn to one type. We may be drawn to another kind of living amid an open Western democracy. Furthermore, Stackhouse argues that different aspects of the same culture may elicit different responses from us.

The first two types (Christ against culture and Christ of culture) can be viewed as two extremes, with the other three being types that find degrees of tension and conjunction between the two. Niebuhr identified with the fifth type: Christ transforming culture. (Even so, Hauerwas labels Niebhur “The Chaplin to Power.”) Stackhouse points out that those who gravitate to this type have tended to operate according to one of three modes: 1) converting individuals, 2) constructing Christian institutions (alternative institutions offered in the hope that they become sufficiently attractive that others are drawn to them) and 3) conquering existing institutions with legitimate power (the mode of liberal Protestants, liberation theologians, the religious right, and Christian socialists to name a few.) (29) I suspect that this fifth type is the one most American Christians would likely identify with.

Stackhouse characterizes his position as a melding of four and five (Christ in Paradox with Culture and Christ transforming culture.) Four can rightly be criticized for becoming too accommodating to culture. Yet five often suffers from a manic hubris that debilitates achieving realistic levels of shalom. Somewhere between complacency and idealism is the right tension. This is what Stackhouse aims for.

The book can almost be divided into two books. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 review how C. S. Lewis, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer each struggled to relate Christ and culture in their work and lives. The book's second part does not build directly on these three vignettes but clearly dives into the issues highlighted by these scholars.

Echoing the sentiments of N. T. Wright in the book I reviewed yesterday, Stackhouse writes, "We do not go back to the garden, and we do not go up to heaven. We go forward to the New Jerusalem." (200) In some way, our efforts and energies in this life are redeemed and carried forward into the new creation. Unlike Wright, Stackhouse repeatedly connects this understanding and what it means for our work-a-day existence in the world. And he does so compellingly.

I can't tell you what a pleasure it was to read this book. I've often considered my "Christ and Culture" perspective a "radical realist." This was my way of capturing the tension between doggedly pursuing the greatest shalom within the confines of the knowledge that shalom cannot be fully consummated until the new creation. This ongoing tension in my life has led me to such ambivalent relationships with Evangelicalism, mainline Protestantism, and the emerging church. I rarely read a book that so clearly articulates the nuance and tension I see in living out the Christian life. There is too much here for me to summarize in this review.

The book is long and meaty but well-written. It is going on my shelf right next to Miroslav Volf's (who endorsed this book) Work in the Spirit and Darrel Cosden's A Theology of Work. (That means the Kruse book Hall of Fame.) Whether you are a Christian wrestling with culture or a pastor leading a congregation of folks who are, this is a must read!