{"id":33629,"date":"2023-10-26T08:45:04","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T15:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=33629"},"modified":"2023-10-26T08:46:47","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T15:46:47","slug":"the-power-of-capitalism-can-it-be-redeemed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-power-of-capitalism-can-it-be-redeemed\/","title":{"rendered":"The “Power” of Capitalism; Can it be Redeemed?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Next Friday the Presbytery of the Cascades will vote to give one of our church properties to the Future Generations Collaborative, a coalition of non-profits representing many Native American communities. As I understand it, they will turn the church property into a village of sorts for single native American mothers and their children. It will include childcare, a medical facility, housing, a building for religious services, and other spaces for the well-being of these families. In an address made by one of the collaborators, it was said, \u201cWe raise our hands to the church. This is a win for all of us to celebrate.\u201d (see Note below on some thoughts about how this property came to be in the hands of the church vs. the Native People.)[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

I mention this because I am hopeful this recognition of our church\u2019s sinful history of putting profit and our own self-interest, over people, in this case, Native American people, will be at least one step toward announcing human solidarity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From Human Solidarity to Human Profit<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his book, The Great Transformation<\/em>, Karl Polanyi, sees a move from a Christian society with a responsibility to others, which limited the effects of markets, ultimately replaced by a turn to the self that \u201crenounces human solidarity\u201d with the development of the \u201csecular religion\u201d of the market.[2]<\/a> In other words, with the infiltration of capitalism into our culture, Christians went from leaning into a faith that teaches us to care for the least of these as we would care for ourselves, a faith that encourages interdependence, family culture, and sharing of resources, to working toward our own self- interest and profit above all else.<\/p>\n

It’s as though as the spirit of capitalism seeped its way into our culture, and specifically, the Christian culture, we ceased considering one another as fully human, instead seeing others as a means to an end, preferably a profitable end. We quit caring for the least of these, leaving them to work-houses or poor houses, to try to pull themselves up by their proverbial bootstraps. If one couldn\u2019t turn a profit, make a living, she was seen as sloth, waste, less than human. To this day, this perspective continues for many Christians.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Capitalism as one of the Powers\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Theologian, Walter Wink, has another name for capitalism, or at least the spirit of capitalism that has turned us toward self and \u201crenounced human solidarity.\u201d He refers to it as the \u201cPowers and Principalities.\u201d Clergyperson and psychotherapist, Dr. John Campbell says, \u201cWalter Wink refers to the \u201cPrincipalities and Powers\u201d as the invisible spirit behind a vast network of societal structures that have fallen into a state of spiritual malaise and are stuck in an ever-reinforcing cycle that prevents change.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Using Paul\u2019s understanding of the perseverance of God\u2019s love, discussed in Romans 8:38-39, \u201cneither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities\u2026..nor powers\u2026..will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus,\u201d Wink proposes the \u201cpowers were not just heavenly beings in a two tier universe (heaven and earth) but a spiritual force manifested in the Roman Empire.\u201d[4]<\/a> And then, calling on Colossians 1, Wink notes, \u201cThe powers are simultaneously an outer, visible structure and an inner spiritual reality.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

Wink goes on to say that when institutions of society, such as government, corporations, labor unions, political parties, which were created and necessary for a culture to survive, and whose essential purpose is to care for and promote the general welfare of people, are fallen, or become idolatrous \u2013 meaning \u201cwhen it pursues a vocation other than the one for which God created it and makes its own interests the highest good \u2013 then that power becomes demonic.\u201d[6]<\/a> Here\u2019s the good news: Wink claims, like humans who are also fallen, these powers can be redeemed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Weber, Polanyi and Clark<\/strong><\/p>\n

Polanyi and Weber and Clark have all seemed to say the same, just not using the same biblical language, calling the spirit of capitalism, demonic. I\u2019m also not sure any of them would say capitalism can be redeemed.<\/p>\n

Weber states, \u201cHow can we live under modern capitalism which gives priority to the laws of the market over longstanding traditions, ethical values, and personal relationship?\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

Polanyi argues that the market economy, if left unchecked, can lead to the commodification of everything, including labor, land, and even human relationships![8]<\/a><\/p>\n

Clark says it this way, \u201cThe market is, if not a false body, then at least a competing body, to which humans have ceded all sociologic because of its promise of an actualizing community desire; however, it has never produced community, but rather fostered an idealization and unrequited desire for community.\u201d [9]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Could we be on a path toward the redemption Wink mentions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was introduced to Walter Wink\u2019s theology of the principalities and powers while in seminary and sort of grasped what he was saying, though did not have enough lived experience to truly understand. Combined with lived experience and these readings I am coming to understand Wink better and our responsibility as Christians to work against the powers.<\/p>\n

I am proud of the Presbytery of the Cascades for putting forth this opportunity to give a church property to the Native American communities. It is not nearly enough to repair the breach we caused by taking their land in the first place, but it is a start. It is the first step on a long journey of saying we will not follow the demonic forces of capitalism but will (try to) live out the reconciling work of Christ. Maybe it is even a path toward the redemption of this power.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> In a Zoom meeting I attended about this vote, it was mentioned this property was stolen from the Native American people as part of the Doctrine of Discovery. It made me wonder if the Doctrine of Discovery evolved (devolved?) out of what Dr. Clark mentions in his dissertation about Karl Polanyi\u2019s argument in his book, The Great Transformation<\/em>. Clark writes, \u201cPolanyi traces how the resources of neo-Darwinian and associated scientific accounts of human nature led to the ideas of scarcity, survival of the fittest, and competition becoming the accepted \u2018nature\u2019 of the market and human life within it.\u201d (151) Did the \u201cassociated scientific accounts of human nature that led to the ideas of survival of the fittest\u201d drive the Doctrine of Discovery?<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Jason Paul Clark, \u201cEvangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogenesis in the relationship,\u201d135, quoting Polanyi 106, 107.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Campbell, John, Recognizing and Transforming Principalities and Powers<\/em>, (2021), https:\/\/www.transylvaniatimes.com\/church\/recognizing-and-transforming-principalities-and-powers\/article_b3a1c35e-ba1a-506f-805b-43e3f8b083a4.html<\/p>\n

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

[5]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

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

[7]<\/a> Weber, Max, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, <\/em>11.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Fehlan, John, Haves and Have-Nots, https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/haves-and-have-nots\/<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Jason Paul Clark, \u201cEvangelicalism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogenesis in the relationship, 165.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Next Friday the Presbytery of the Cascades will vote to give one of our church properties to the Future Generations Collaborative, a coalition of non-profits representing many Native American communities. As I understand it, they will turn the church property into a village of sorts for single native American mothers and their children. It will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":170,"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":[2879,2535,467,4],"class_list":["post-33629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp02-clark-polanyi","tag-dlpg02","tag-clark","tag-polanyi","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33629","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\/170"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33629"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33631,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33629\/revisions\/33631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}