(ABC Aus.) William Cavanaugh–Only Christianity can Save Economics

We need to stop giving our money over to an abstract and destructive financial system, and put it to work locally through credit unions and co-ops that can make realistic and cooperative assessments of debt and risk.

Churches are taking leading roles in fostering these kinds of grounded economies, supporting the kinds of local development projects, Fair Trade arrangements, credit unions, community supported agriculture projects, and other projects I discuss in my book Being Consumed.

Economy is not a separate sphere of life that only intersects with the religious sphere when people act immorally with their money or are unable to meet their needs. The idea that theology and economics are two separate pursuits is a thoroughly modern idea, the product of the last 250 years or so, an idea that Christians traditionally would have found bizarre.

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Posted in * Culture-Watch, * Economics, Politics, Economy, Ethics / Moral Theology, Pastoral Theology, Religion & Culture, Theology