By: gfesadmin on January 25, 2013
“Someone else has it worse than you do.” The jolt of these words paints an ugly reality that many overseas laborers endure daily in various factories. It causes me to think twice about where my products are made and how the workers are treated. We are a global community impacted by consumerism, and our buying…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
Consumerism is a term many would use to describe much of American and Western culture. However, the term is rarely unpacked and understood from a theological framework. William Cavanaugh in Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire begins to unpack the intermingling of Christian life amidst the complexity and ambiguity of capitalism, specifically focusing on the…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
In this writing I will analyze two concepts within William T. Cavanaugh’s book, Economics and Christian Desire. One I agree with and the other I hold in question. The first idea is the relentless quest for goods that we as consumers have and the second involves his ideas regarding multiculturalism. Cavanaugh explains that it is…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
Famous documentary filmer Hubert Sauper was working in Ruanda 1997. While being on an airfield in Mwanza, Tanzania he witnesses the loading and unloading of two huge cargo planes. One plane with UN food donations for Tanzania and the starving refugees from Ruanda is being unloaded. At the same time a huge cargo plane with…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
What do you do with the poor? They are often at the center of heartfelt concern in the church. But mostly they are disempowered either by their own efforts or something larger. In our local church we have been attempting to help a couple that have continually been short on rent, had tickets from past…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
I barely passed my course in economics at Kent State University. Perhaps it was because I sat next to the leader of students for a democratic society (SDS) who constantly poured forth his communist theory and seemed to have a special rapport with the professor. Or, perhaps it was because I did not see the…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
Throw a Load of Coal on the Fire Every three hours the furnace required someone to get up, trudge outside in the snow and load precisely three heaping shovels of black coal into its gaping door, or as some would say, its insatiable mouth! Because of these heroic efforts, Mike and I slept in comfort…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
For almost four years the family and I lived in the city of Lancaster. Like most city living, we tried to get outside in the fresh air as much as possible. During that season of life one of my weekly traditions was taking Grace and Eli on a Sunday afternoon bike ride for a daddy…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
This week’s reading was, Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire by William Cavanaugh. This might be my favorite book I’ve read in my D.Min. program. There are so many things I like about this book it’s hard to narrow a blog post down to just one or two thoughts. So if I ramble a bit,…
By: gfesadmin on January 21, 2013
With the liberalization of trade policies in 1991, new doors of opportunity opened and a new India was born. Private and free enterprise was a welcome relief from the previously assumed socialist ‘regime’. With all of the growth and progress, India, many would say can now be listed as a capitalist nation. While this maybe…
By: gfesadmin on January 21, 2013
The calling of Christians has been written about for centuries. Max Weber in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism believes that the calling of protestant asceticism is a significant factor that has grown into modern capitalism as we know it today. Weber lists Calvinism, Pietism, Methodism and various Baptist sects or denominations as…
By: gfesadmin on January 19, 2013
I have just returned to my hotel room in a city in Central India after several hours of driving and an arduous trek up a hill and back. The purpose was to visit a group of new Believers and see the progress of the ministry in a primitive and remote tribal village called Chuli. This…
By: gfesadmin on January 18, 2013
This is my first in-depth and professional introduction to Max Weber and his book, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Weber’s ideology invites his reader to think about capitalism as a possible byproduct of religion, particularly the Protestant Reformation. He holds that systems used by men and women during the span of the…
By: Joy Mindo on January 17, 2013
Kenya is undergoing election and the first party primaries under a new constitution are being held this week. Different people have sought for nomination leadership positions as governor, senator and members of parliament. One category of leaders who want to vie for these positions is religious leaders. A debate has ensued whether religious leaders can…
By: gfesadmin on January 17, 2013
Taking Care of Business Question: How are we preparing our youth for the world of work? Do they have the theological grounding as they encounter counterfeit values to stay true to Christian convictions? A sense of calling motivated early western Christian’s values of work. That vocational framework has deteriorated to merely getting a job to…
By: gfesadmin on January 17, 2013
Max Weber in his essay “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism,” discusses aspects of Protestantantism that helped spur the spirit of capitalism. Specifically, he analyzes the Calvinist belief in predestination and the elite, the idea of a work ethic and material gain, and the concept of a “calling” which involves individuals to become…
By: gfesadmin on January 17, 2013
„The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism“ by Max Weber is a collection of essays from 1904 and 1905, which were revised and published 1920. It is one of the most inspiring and ground-breaking works in sociology and especially in religion-sociology I’ve ever read. Weber presents his idea of a link between protestant ethic…
By: gfesadmin on January 17, 2013
“It is the change of moral standards which converted a natural frailty into an ornament of the spirit, and canonized as the economic virtues habits which in earlier ages had been denounced as vices. The force which produced it was the creed associated with the name of Calvin. Capitalism was the social counterpart of Calvinist…
By: gfesadmin on January 17, 2013
I love Christmas break. Time off from work, sleeping in past 10 a.m., hanging out with family and most of all playing Monopoly with my 10 year old daughter Grace. Now, don’t assume because Grace is 10 she isn’t a worthy opponent. In fact, the last two games she has beat me fair and square. …
By: gfesadmin on January 17, 2013
This semester my cohort is focusing on capitalism, consumerism and leadership. Our first assigned reading was Max Weber’s, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Weber penned it in German in 1904 and 1905, but it’s a book that speaks to the heart of today’s American society. There are lots of ideas from this…
