\u201cPoverty was nature surviving in society; that the limitedness of food<\/p>\n
and the unlimitedness of men had come to an issue just when the promise of<\/p>\n
boundless increase of wealth burst in upon us made the irony only the more bitter.\u201d<\/p>\n
-Karl Polanyi-<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n On every occasion when I contemplate international travel, my preparations include the essentials of documentation and related requirements. Additionally, my attention is also towards the exchange rate dynamics between the Indonesian Rupiah and the currency of my intended destination. It is this aspect that I accord paramount importance. The rationale behind this emphasis is rooted in the intrinsic weakness of the Rupiah concerning its exchange rate vis-\u00e0-vis other global currencies. During my most recent trip to Oxford a month ago, precise financial management became essential. I conscientiously established a predetermined budgetary limit for my discretionary expenditures, encompassing meals, books, and souvenirs. I set my budget at approximately 250 GBP. Converting this figure into Rupiah, it approximated my entire month’s salary. Sometimes, I’m just wondering, what if all the currencies in the world held equal worth? Would that bring about a utopia, or could it potentially unravel new style challenges in our lives?<\/p>\n The presence of money and currency values as a means of payment is the impact of the presence of a market system that replaces the traditional transaction system. In his monumental book, \u201cGreat Transformation,\u201d Polanyi stated his thesis: \u201cThe idea of a self-adjusting market implied a stark utopia. Such an institution could not exist for any length of time without annihilating the human and natural substance of society; it would have physically destroyed man and transformed his surroundings into a wilderness.\u201d[1]<\/a> For Polanyi, money is not only a means of payment but also a symbol of “purchasing power.” Polanyi says, \u201cThis money was not a means of exchange, it was a means of payment; it was not a commodity, it was purchasing power; far from having utility itself, it was merely a counter embodying a quantified claim to things that would be purchased.\u201d[2]<\/a> If money describes a person’s purchasing power, then the impact is that humans need to work hard in every way or method, so that they can earn money to meet their living needs.<\/p>\n In a highly self-regulating market system, the market becomes disembedded from society, provoking some specific groups that gain control over resources and capital. Conversely, other groups of people struggle to access opportunities and end up marginalized, unable to benefit from the abundant natural resources available. According to Polanyi, economic systems in previous history, the motives and circumstances of productive activities were embedded in the general organization of society.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n Such a system supports the concept of equality and brings happiness to people’s lives. Polanyi then reminded us about the enormous impact of the Industrial Revolution, which caused the market to be disembedded from social life. Polanyi writes, \u201cThe Industrial Revolution was causing a social dislocation of stupendous proportions, and the problem of poverty was merely the economic aspect of this event.\u201d[4]<\/a> Poverty, suffering, inequality, and injustice are emerging everywhere because of the disembedded of the market system from social, community, and even natural contexts. Polanyi insists, \u201cBut a principle quite unfavorable to individual and general happiness was wreaking havoc with his social environment, his neighborhood, his standing in the community, his craft; in a word, with those relationships to nature and man in which his economic existence was formerly embedded.\u201d[5]<\/a> I recall an Asian theologian, M.P. Joseph, who, in his work titled “Theologies of the Non-Person,” writes, \u201cThe accumulation of wealth continues in the name of development and growth. The dangerous result of this process is that it offers a small minority of the wealthy class the right to control and own global resources and the global markets that regulate the exchange of these resources. The reality is growing control of resources. If the numbers circulating in the transnational capital markets convert into numbers, it would read that less than one percent of the rich own more than ninety percent of the world’s wealth.\u201d[6]<\/a> Circumstances like these are cause for significant concern if they persist.<\/p>\n The question is how Christianity can offer a solution to a world that is predominantly influenced by money and markets. History shows that Christianity was one of the significant factors that supported the emergence of capitalism and the creation of a free market system. Christianity seems to find comfort and a new identity there. Jason Clark reminds us about that. He says, \u201cFor I have already shown the move of aseity from Christian community into an aseity of the market, where the market becomes the ontological basis for all relationships and identity.\u201d[7]<\/a> \u00a0Therefore, religion in somehow transformed into a market. Clark says, \u201cThe market itself becomes a society, as identity and practice relocate from within religious communities to the market itself as the site of a new religious and embedded community, a new market community. It maps out where markets become the site of identity, belonging, and being for people, replacing previous religious affiliations and commitments.\u201d[8]<\/a><\/p>\n Responding to these phenomena, we need to remain optimistic. Indeed, the current economic and market system is increasingly showing its solid form. The resulting impact has far-reaching consequences. It may not be something we can halt or swiftly alter. However, the contemporary church and Christianity can draw lessons from history. The calling and mission of Christianity and the church are ongoing. We hope the church’s continued presence and active engagement will impart a distinct hue of love, advocacy, and transformation toward greater justice and equality, as the Bible says: \u201cThe exercise of justice is joy for the righteous, but terror to those who practice injustice.\u201d (Proverbs 21:15)<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Karl Polanyi, Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time<\/em>, (Boston: Beacon Press, 2001), 3.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Karl Polanyi, Great Transformation<\/em>, 205.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Karl Polanyi, Great Transformation<\/em>, 73.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Karl Polanyi, Great Transformation<\/em>, 135.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Karl Polanyi, Great Transformation<\/em>.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> M.P. Joseph, Theologies of the Non-Person: The Formative Years of EATWOT,<\/em> (Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan, 2015), xiv.<\/p>\n