{"id":30670,"date":"2023-02-01T09:54:53","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T17:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=30670"},"modified":"2023-02-01T09:55:25","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T17:55:25","slug":"evangelicalism-and-capitalism-products-of-and-prophetic-voices-within-capitalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/evangelicalism-and-capitalism-products-of-and-prophetic-voices-within-capitalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Evangelicalism and Capitalism \u2013 Products of, or Prophetic Voices within, Capitalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Brooks, a New York Times political and cultural commentator, wrote this line in his book The Second Mountain<\/em>: \u201c<\/strong>Never underestimate the power of the environment you work in to gradually transform who you are.\u201d[1]<\/a> The subtle influence of our environment must not to be dismissed. As with a gas leak in a kitchen, if we are not vigilant to the toxicity of the cultural environment in which we inhabit, we will be unwittingly poisoned from the inside out. As C.S. Lewis describes in his classic, The Screwtape Letters<\/em>, \u201cIndeed, the safest road to Hell is the gradual one \u2013 the gentle slope, soft underfoot…without signposts.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Evangelicalism is not immune to the toxicity of a capitalistic environment. In this post, I will highlight, utilizing the work of David Bebbington and Dr. Jason Clark, the influence of the enlightenment and capitalism on Evangelicalism. After this, I will conclude with an invitation for us to be not products of our capitalistic environment, but prophetic voices within our world. However, we must first clarify two critical terms: Evangelicalism and capitalism.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our Working Definitions<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Much ink has been spilled on Evangelicalism’s <\/em>definition. For the purpose of this post, Bebbington\u2019s four characteristics of an evangelical is our framework. According to Bebbington, \u201cConversionism, activism, biblicism and crucicentrism form the defining attributes of Evangelical religion.\u201d[3]<\/a> For capitalism, we will move forward with Dr. Clark\u2019s reference to Nicholas Townsend\u2019s definition: \u201cthe meaning of capitalism is given precisely by reference to capital, the financial resources invested in a business and the assets they purchase. In that strict or literal sense, \u2018capitalism\u2019 names a form of business in which the objective of making return on capital overrides others and so determines what the business does<\/em>.\u201d[4]<\/a> With these in mind, let’s proceed to the genesis of Evangelicalism’s susceptibility to deformation via capitalism.<\/p>\n

The Enlightenment Paves the Way<\/strong><\/p>\n

The emergence of Evangelicalism came around a time in which there was a paradigm shift in how people made sense of the world. This was due to the Enlightenment. Major thought leaders of the Enlightenment influenced Evangelical leaders in profound ways. A significant example is John Locke\u2019s influence on Jonathan Edwards.[5]<\/a> These Evangelical thought leaders profoundly impacted the Evangelical understanding of doctrines, which then influenced how Evangelicals lived out their faith.\u00a0 An important doctrine for our discussion is the doctrine of assurance<\/em> of one\u2019s salvation. As Bebbington writes, \u201cThe Methodist teaching about assurance was new because it was part and parcel of the rising Enlightenment. It was a consequence of Wesley\u2019s application of an empiricist philosophy to religious experience.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Allure of Capitalism\u2019s Salvific Assurance <\/strong><\/p>\n

Clark argues that from this emerged a new spin on the doctrine of assurance<\/em>. He writes, \u201cAssurance moves from its inner experience into the outward expression of self-creation by the external providence of the market manifested in the life of the believer. Assurance becomes a matter of being self-made and of outward provision by God, which are both ultimately ceded to the market.\u201d[7]<\/a>Evangelicalism unwittingly ascribed the assurance of salvation to the display of God\u2019s favor (providence) in the form of financial accumulation. This is the seedbed in which a consumer, capitalistic Evangelicalism emerged. In the words of the late Jesuit theologian Dean Brackley, \u201cThe most straightforward road to security is by pursuing wealth. Capitalism aggravates the universal desire to possess and rewards covetousness more generously than earlier societies in which social position depended more on birth.\u201d[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Products of, or Prophetic Voices within, Capitalism<\/strong><\/p>\n

The diagnosis is delivered. The allures of capitalism have over-exerted their influence. Walter Brueggamann exhorts \u201cThe contemporary American church is so largely enculturated to the American ethos of consumerism that is has little power to believe or act.\u201d[9]<\/a> But Brueggaman continues with an invitation to the work of prophetic ministry: \u201cThe task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perceptive alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us.\u201d[10]<\/a> The gas leak of the dominant, capitalistic culture needs to be brought to light. A crossroad is now before Evangelicalism as a whole. Now is the time to make a radical shift from being products of capitalism to being prophetic voices within capitalism. This means critically engaging within capitalism, being vigilant of the toxicity of a capitalistic environment and how it can deform us. It means working \u00a0within this economic system to do what we can to, in the words of Isaiah, \u201ccease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow\u2019s cause.\u201d[11]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> David Brooks, The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life<\/em> (Random House Publishing Group, 2020), 22.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters<\/em> (Zondervan, 2001), 61.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> David W. Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain\u202f: A History From the 1730s to the 1980s<\/em> (Routledge, 1993), 4.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> \u00a0Jason Paul Clark, “Evangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship” (2018). Faculty Publications – Portland Seminary. 132. https:\/\/digitalcommons.georgefox.edu\/gfes\/132, 51. Here, Clark cites Townsend in Nicholas Townsend, \u201cTranscending the Long Twentieth Century\u201d in Jeremy Kidwell, Theology and Economics: A Christian Vision of the Common Good<\/em>. 1st ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, 204. The emphasis in this quote belongs to Dr. Clark.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Bebbington, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain<\/em>, 48.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ibid. 50.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Clark, “Evangelicalism and Capitalism,\u201d 65.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Dean Brackley, The Call to Discernment in Troubled Times: New Perspectives on the Transformative Wisdom of Ignatius of Loyola<\/em> (New York: Crossroad Pub. Co, 2004), 93.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination<\/em> (Fortress Press, 2001), 1.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Ibid. 3.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/sup><\/a> The Holy Bible: English Standard Version<\/em><\/a> (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Is 1:16\u201317.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Brooks, a New York Times political and cultural commentator, wrote this line in his book The Second Mountain: \u201cNever underestimate the power of the environment you work in to gradually transform who you are.\u201d[1] The subtle influence of our environment must not to be dismissed. As with a gas leak in a kitchen, if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12,388,467,60,366],"class_list":["post-30670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bebbington","tag-capitalism","tag-clark","tag-environment","tag-evangelicalism","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30670"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30672,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30670\/revisions\/30672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}