{"id":31108,"date":"2023-02-16T15:34:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T23:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=31108"},"modified":"2023-02-16T15:34:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T23:34:00","slug":"evidence-of-gods-providence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/evidence-of-gods-providence\/","title":{"rendered":"Evidence of God\u2019s providence"},"content":{"rendered":"

What are the conditions that caused capitalism to emerge in civilization? This is the question the German sociologist, Max Weber, tackles in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism<\/em>.[1]<\/a> Though the answer is complex, Weber highlights the influence Protestantism in particular had in creating an environment for capitalism to thrive.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr. Jason Clark engages with Weber\u2019s ideas along with David Bebbington to identify the genesis and underlying conditions that made way for Evangelicalism\u2019s entanglement with capitalism. According to Dr. Clark, Evangelicalism \u201cis seen as both a creature of capitalism, and a way of responding to capitalism.\u201d[2]<\/a> Clark argues that Weber\u2019s understanding of the Protestant ethic \u201cwould possibly be better centred on the migration of assurance into the doctrine of providence.\u201d[3]<\/a> What this created was an assumption that to know whether one was \u201csaved\u201d (the doctrine of assurance), one had to see the fruits of God\u2019s favor (the doctrine of providence) through economic blessing. In the words of Clark, \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[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In this post, I am going to primarily focus on the Enlightenment\u2019s influence on Christianity and economics followed by a reflection on the imprint this has left on ministry leadership in our day and age.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Enlightenment\u2019s Influence on Christianity and Economics <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

One cannot overstate the impact the Enlightenment had on Christianity. In shifting the focus onto the human as an individual, the Christian faith became far more individualistic. Weber displays this in highlighting John Bunyan\u2019s influential book Pilgrim\u2019s Progress<\/em>. Weber writes,<\/p>\n

In spite of the necessity of membership in the true Church\u00a0for salvation, the Calvinist\u2019s intercourse with his God was carried on in deep spiritual isolation. To see the specific results\u00a0of this peculiar atmosphere, it is only necessary to read Bunyan\u2019s\u00a0Pilgrim\u2019s Progress,\u00a0by far the most widely read book of the whole Puritan literature.[5]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Enlightenment also impacted people\u2019s view of economics. Lesslie Newbigin in his book Foolishness to the Greeks<\/em>, comments on the impact of this shift in people\u2019s economic view of static to growth and progress. He writes,<\/p>\n

It has shifted the focus of attention from distribution to production. It has made us familiar with the idea of ceaseless and limitless growth, of unending possibilities of increased mastery over nature that provides increased resources of food, materials, and energy. This is a world in which economics is mainly about increasing production, and it is assumed that if everyone pursues his rational self-interest, production will grow and distribution will take care of itself.[6]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What this created, according to Newbigin, is a shift in Protestants on their understanding of \u201ccovetousness.\u201d It shifted from \u201ca deadly sin\u201d to \u201ca law of nature but the engine of progress by which the purpose of nature and nature’s God was to be carried out.\u201d[7]<\/a> It is no wonder we are living with greed masked as progress for God embedded within our hearts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ministry Leadership Today \u2013 The Metric of Favor<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was in my early days of following Jesus, I remember watching a conversation six influential Evangelical pastors were having with each other (all were white men). The conversation was around \u201cmulti-site\u201d ministry, particularly video-venue preaching. The tension was on raising up future preachers by giving them chances at speaking, or focusing the influence on the celebrity senior pastor. One of them, in support of the latter position (with affirmation from the other pastors), said \u201cI\u2019m not going to taper down my fruitfulness in the most fruitful season of ministry in order to convince other young leaders that I want them to have opportunities and grow.\u201d My highly impressionable self learned that day this lesson: hoard the favor. Hoard the blessing. This is evidence of God\u2019s providence in your life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In my journey of learning the paradigm of ministry according to Jesus, I have had to work hard at uprooting this lesson.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism<\/em> (Wilder Publications, 2015) .<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Jason 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, 74.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid. 107.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid. 65.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism<\/em>, 51.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture<\/em> (Grand Rapids, Mich: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co, 1986),110.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Ibid. 109.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What are the conditions that caused capitalism to emerge in civilization? This is the question the German sociologist, Max Weber, tackles in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.[1] Though the answer is complex, Weber highlights the influence Protestantism in particular had in creating an environment for capitalism to thrive.   Dr. Jason Clark […]<\/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":[388,467,1011,2620,11],"class_list":["post-31108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-capitalism","tag-clark","tag-ministry","tag-newbigin","tag-weber","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31108","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=31108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31109,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31108\/revisions\/31109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}