Proclaiming the Gospel in a Tanking Economy

Elephants in the Living Room

Detroit, MI

Michael H. Crosby, OFMCap.

January 29, 2009

© Michael H. Crosby, 2009

Outline of Remarks/Discussion• Social Analysis from the lens of: “Capitalism’s

Crisis of Confidence”

• The need / opportunity / teachable moment to overcome the mythology / idolatry of “Americanism” and Unfettered “Capitalism”

• Theological Reflection from the lens of the Gospel of the Economic Trinity

• The Pastoral Call: The need for a new way of thinking and acting (“conversion”) modeled on the relationships found in the Economic Trinity: The FAITH that Does Justice

1. Social AnalysisWorst Crisis Since ’30s, With No End Yet in Sight The Wall Street Journal, September 18, 2008

Stock Investors Lose Faith, Pull Out Record Amount The Wall Street Journal, December 22, 2008

The Weekend that Wall Street Died: Ties that Long United Strongest Firms Unraveled as Lehman Sank toward Failure.

The Wall Street Journal, December 28, 2008

Losing Faith: The Consumer-Confidence Index Dropped to 38.0 in December

The Wall Street Journal, January 5, 2009

Conclusion: Ours Has Been a Faith-Based Economy

“Generally, would you say things are going better today, worse today, or about the same today as they were going five years ago”

Better Worse Same DK / NA

01.19 – 23, 1986 44 31 23 3

10.15 –18, 1991 19 44 34 3

01.19 – 22, 2003 14 63 21 2

01.11 – 15, 2008 5 83 10 1

NYT/CBS Poll January 11-15, 2009

“Blame and the Big 3:”Alan M. Webber, Fast Company,

“It’s easy to vilify Motor City, but maybe the problem isn’t just Detroit. Perhaps the entire system needs the makeover.”

USA Today, The Forum, 12.03.08

“The sad irony of the debate over the Big Three today is that it not only misdiagnoses the source of the competitive problem, it also fails to credit U.S. companies for the progress they’ve made. Not only are the cars they make in the U.S. achieving world-class quality standards, but the cars they make in other parts of the world are enormously popular.

“But here in the USA, we’ve already decided: The Big Three are corrupt, or funny, or not Steve Jobs. Sadly, the one things this write-ff of the automakers will lose is jobs.”

2. The need / opportunity / teachable moment to overcome the

mythology / idolatry of “Americanism” and Unfettered

“Capitalism”

The Idolatry of “Americanism”David Gelernter

Commentary 119.1. January, 2005

Anti-Americanism has blossomed frantically in recent years. [It encompasses] the supposed evils of America and Americanism in general. In its passion-ate and unreasoning intensity, antiAmericanism resembles a religion--or a caricature of a religion. And this fact tells us something about Americanism itself.

By Americanism I mean the set of beliefs that are thought to constitute America’s essence and to set it apart; the beliefs that make Americans positive that their nation is superior to all others-morally superior, closer to God.

The “Beliefs” of Americans vis-à-vis Their Place among the Top Income-Holders in the U.S. Economy

The most telling polling result from the 2000 election was from a Time magazine survey that asked people if they are in the top 1 percent of earners. Nineteen percent of Americans say they are in the richest 1 percent and a further 20 percent expect to be someday. So right away you have 39 percent of Americans who thought that when [during the 2000 election] Mr. Gore savaged a plan that favored the top 1 percent, he was taking a direct shot at them.

It's not hard to see why they think this way. Americans live in a culture of abundance. They have always had a sense that great opportunities lie just over the horizon, in the next valley, with the next job or the next big thing. None of us is really poor; we're just pre-rich. David Brooks, “The Triumph of Hope over Self-Interest,” NYT, Jan. 12, 2003

The Idolatry of U.S.-Style Corporate Capitalism

“In Turmoil, Capitalism in U.S. Sets New Course,” David Wessel, The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 20, 2008

“In the gospel according to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, ‘there are no atheists in fox holes and no ideologues in financial crises.’

Well, there is some truth in that. But I think we are still capable of . . . some moral outrage at the sudden, convenient collapse of the ideology of personal responsibility.”

Ellen Goodman, The Buffalo News, Sept. 29, 2008

Modern Market Thinking Has Devalued a Deadly Sin Peter Steinfels, Beliefs, The New York Times, 09.27.08

“Perhaps, it was argued, these passions could serve as checks on one another—and soon passions were being viewed, well, dispassionately. That is, they were re-envisioned as more rational ‘interests’. . . . It was a remarkable mutation: Greed disappeared and was reborn, domesticated, as self-interest.”

“Economics has given us a lot of better words, from self-interest to incentive to profit. They do not mean the same thing as greed, but they have displaced it, obscured it—and certainly demoted it from being a deadly sin.”

“In ‘The Unwisdom of Crowds,’ in The Weekly Standard, Christopher Caldwell explores the contradictions between common-sense morality and the rules of finance. . . . Fundamentally, Caldwell is asking an uncomfortable question about the morality of capitalism.”

“The Sydney Awards,” David Brooks, NYT, 01.02.09

3. Theological Reflection from the lens of

the reign / rule / governance / power of the Gospel of the Economic Trinity

Kinds of “The Gospel” TodayThe Gospel according to Peanuts

The Gospel according to The Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World’s Most Animated Family

The Gospel of Oprah

The Gospel according to Marcus Buckingham

The Gospel of Weight Loss Control

The Gospel according to Milton Friedman

Meaning of “The Gospel” in the Social Milieu of Jesus

Generally: “Good News” regarding some form of salvation or Good News regarding one who saves the people from their predicament.

Specifically re Rome: The Proclamation in Space (Geographic Expansion) and Time (Generational Expansion) of the “Good News” of Political, Economic and Religious Salvation achieved through Imperial Power.

Jesus’ Call / Invitation of “Conversion”

to an Alternative “Gospel:” The “Kingdom of God”

not defined by time / space categories

but by a certain “kindom” way of relating of among his

followers / disciples to bring about salvation / shalom.

Last Sunday’s Gospel (Mk 1:14-20):

2. Jesus calls Peter, Andrew, James & Johnto leave one oikonomia [family business]

to create a new kind of household / oikonomia to reveal the

dynamics #1 through a new “kindom.”

1. Jesus proclaims the inbreaking of the Kingdom (Rule / Reign / Governance) of God and the need to convert to it’s Way

The Gospel of the Kingdom of GodOTHER WORDS: “KINGDOM” GOD AS TRINITYOTHER WORDS FOR “KINGDOM”

Commonwealth Realm

Reign Rule Governance

Structure Ordering

Way Truth Life

Essence Existence

Power

Authority

Energy Force

Connectedness

Dynamic

Relatedness

A Kinship of Interdependence

Traditional Model: Father Son Holy Spirit

Another Trinity Model:A kinship of personsDefined by relatednessWith resource fulness

HOUSEOIKIA

Persons

Relations

Resources

HOUSEOIKIA

Persons RelationsResources

NOMOS ORDER

OIKIA+

NOMOS=

OIKONOMIA

Until 19th Century

OIKONOMIA PERSONS RELATIONS RESOURCES

ECONOMICS: THE WAY

1) Persons (2) order their Relationships

(3) vis-à-vis their combined Resources

The Economic Trinity:GOD AS ECONOMIST

The way God has been revealed to us as a triune community of equal PERSONSIN RELATIONSHIP to each other in such solidarity that the RESOURCES of their commonwealth are equally shared by all without any distinction among the persons

THEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY(Genesis 1:26-28)

Based on the Pattern of the Economic Trinity

(God as Archetypal Householder)

1. God made them male and female PERSONS in the divine image

2. God blessed / empowered them to RELATE in a way that would reflect God’s way of RELATING

3. God called them to increase, multiply and have full access to all the earth’s RESOURCES equally.

Until 3rd Century= EKKLESIA

HOUSEOIKIAPersons

RelationsResources

NOMOSORDER

Until 19th Century= OIKONOMIA

Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, “Why this waste? For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.” But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? She has done a good deed for me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” Mt. 26:6-13

“Wherever

in the world

the Good News

is proclaimed,

what she did

will be told

in memory of her.”

‘Wherever in the World. . .”

Four Levels of Our WorldIndividual

InterpersonalInfrastructuralEnvironmental

Parallel Levels of the Four Kinds of

“Households” that Constitute Our World

Individual: OIKIA

Interpersonal Level: OIKONOMIA

Infrastructural Level: OIKOUMENE

Environmental Level: OIKOLOGIA

The Woman in the House is the model for all disciples to

embrace A WAY OF RELATING among PERSONS vis-à-vis

the[ir and the earth’s] RESOURCESthat brings about conversion

to the Gospel in a way that revealsa Kindom of Trinitarian Relations at all levels of our world on earth

as it is in heaven.

In other words, if we are to bring about trinitarian

relations and“do [to others] what she did [to Jesus]”

as our way of proclaiming the Gospelwherever our “households” may be,

Catholic life should be about calling for conversion from that which is sinful and living alternatively as disciples

committed to bring about the Kindom of Trinitarian Relations

“on earth as it is in heaven.”

4. The Pastoral Call:

The need for a new way of thinking and acting (“conversion”)

modeled on the relationships found in the Economic Trinity: The FAITH that Does Justice

“Laying Dead Ideas to Rest” Kathleen Parker, The Washington Post, January 9, 2009

“Rethink Core Economic Principles”

“The world has changed in significant ways, and our old formulas simply no longer work.” Kathleen Parker, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, January 13, 2009

“Belief in What Everyone Knows Is Dangerous”“A new book argues that the change most needed

in the United States is the most difficult kind: changing how we think.” Kathleen Parker, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, January 12, 2009

We can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders.

Barack H. Obama, Inaugural Address, 2009

Obama didn’t use the precise words, but he implied in his inaugural address that our current crises are karmic justice for decades of self-indulgence, greed and irresponsibility. It’s not that we deserve a collapsed economy, two wars and a warming planet, but we can’t place all the blame elsewhere.

Urging a new era of responsibility--long the rallying cry of conservatives--Obama was essentialy invoking ancient scripture: “For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

Kathleen Parker, “Unabashed Karmic Justice,” The Washington Post, Jan. 23, 2009

On the Need for Conversion, Beginning with New Thinking Economically

A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humankind is to survive.

Attributed to Albert Einstein

[i]

Discuss material in “The Social Animal”

David Brooks, The New York Times, 09.12.08

1. Barry Goldwater’s The Conscience of a Conservative still holds sway over many: a “highly individualistic” vision that celebrated “the stalwart hero fighting the collectivist foe.”

2. The problem is, given “a tide of research” shows that this individualist description of human nature seems to be wrong and “that we are intensely social creatures, deeply interconnected with one another and the idea of the lone individual rationally and willfully steering his own life course is often an illusion.

Discuss material in “The Behavioral Revolution” David Brooks, The New York Times, 10.28.08

Four steps to every decision / action

1. Perceive a situation “OBSERVE”

2. Consider possible actions “JUDGE”

3. Calculate which course is 1. Advantages in your best interests 2. Disadvantages “risk analysisis”

4. Take action “ACT”

How do we preach conversion to the Gospel of the Reign of the

Economic Trinity in a way that will offer “Good News”

through structures reflecting Trinitarian Economics that will be

worthy of God the Economist?

Recalling the woman in the house, she not only

sought and found Jesus;

by “selling” what she had she “bought” the pearl of great price: the gospel pattern or way of life:

“Wherever in the world the gospel is proclaimed, what she did will be told

in memory of her.

SEEK

FIND

SELL

BUY

Discuss material in “The Social Animal” David Brooks, NYT, 09.12.08

Discuss material in “The Behavioral Revolution” David Brooks, NYT, 10.28.08

“In ‘The Unwisdom of Crowds,’ in The Weekly Standard, Christopher Caldwell explores the contradictions between common-sense morality and the rules of finance. . . . Fundamentally, Caldwell is asking an uncomfortable question about the morality of capitalism.”

“The Sydney Awards,” David Brooks, NYT, 01.02.09

The Three Great Moral Principles of a Community whose members

relate to each other with an “Ethic of Responsibility:”

1. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

2. Love your neighbor as your self [remembering Jesus’ response in Luke to the question: “Who is my neighbor?”]

3. Do no harm.

More specifically, given our understanding of

the dynamics of the Economic Trinity and God as Economist,

and our anthropology of the Human Person,

(based on our belief in God’s creative purposes),

and Jesus’ Gospel / Evangelical proclamation

of the rule / reign / governance / dynamcis

of the Economic Trinity,

Catholic Social Teaching / Doctrine

offers a model of Liberty and Justice for All

POLICY

• Person as Maximizer of Utility / Self-Interest

• Capital Most Valued• Market Share• Competition• Individualism• Profits• Laissais Faire• Creation of Wealth• Liberty• Inflation

• Person Made in Image of God

• Work Most Valued• Common Good• Collaboration• Community• People• Checks and Balances• Distribution of Wealth• Justice• Unemployment

Capitalism Catholic Social TeachingTHE INDIVIDUAL FROM THE LENS OF

How do we celebrate our effort to help bring about the new “order” envisioned

by Trinitarian Economics?

CELEBRATNG / DOING “THE THIS”

OF THE EUCHARIST:We will know / experience the Cosmic Christ in the way we “do this” / break the bread to bring about a world where all persons will “count” the same way and all can eat as much as they need and “be satisfied.”

Bruce W. Bentleson and Steven Weber, America’s Hard Sell, Foreign Policy, November/December, 2008

For most of the second half of the 20th century, give Big Ideas shaped world politics:

1. Peace is better than war.

2. Hegemony, at least the benign sort, is better

than a balance of power.

3. Capitalism is better than socialism.

4. Democracy is better than dictatorship.

5. Western culture is better than all the rest.

Today, the prevailing consensus in the United States is that these five Big Ideas still hold. A variety of intellectual formulations have sprung up—the end of history, the democratic peace, the indispensable nation, the Rome-like empire—which, despite their differences, share the core belief that these fundamentals have changed.

The five Big Ideas of the past century are no longer the sound and sturdy guides they once were. . . The rules have changed, and the biggest and most basic questions of world politics are open for debate once again

The New Era Has ArrivedIt would be best for the United States to get serious about how to compete most effectively in the . . . marketplace of ideas that is contemporary global politics. To gain a solid footing, there are three central rules that must be understood:

1. Ideology is now the most important, yet most uncertain and fastest-changing, component of national power.

2. Technology massively multiplies soft power— particularly video technology, and particularly in the hands of nonstate actors.3. Each player represents a single ideology, so “domestic values” and “international values” must be consistent.