Review: Moving Creatively Beyond the Old Divides

July-August 1996

By James W. Skillen

Christian Social Ethics in a Global Era (Abingdon Press, 1995) is the first volume in a new series titled the "Abingdon Press Studies in Christian Ethics and Economic Life." The editor of the series and the primary author of this first volume is Max L. Stackhouse, Professor of Christian Ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary and an Associate of the Center for Public Justice.

The purpose of the series is "to aid in the reconstruction of Christian Ethics as it bears on economic life in our increasingly global era." The reader should know, however, that Stackhouse approaches economic life with a view to its entire social and cultural context. The subtitle of the first volume—"Reforming Protestant Views"—narrows the focus only slightly.

Each book in this series is designed to advance discussion and debate. A primary author (in this case Stackhouse) writes the major essay of about 75 pages. Then follow shorter comments from other representative thinkers, in this case Peter L. Berger, professor of Sociology at Boston University, Dennis P. McCann, professor of Business Ethics at DePaul University, and M. Douglas Meeks, professor of Systematic Theology at Wesley Theological Seminary.

Stackhouse is especially concerned that Christians reassess both the times in which we live and the foundations of Christian faith in order to regain confidence that a reforming Christianity can, by the grace of God, open new opportunities for service to God and fellow humans in the economic as well as other spheres. This requires the wise and careful stewardship of everything good in our societies as well as prophetic criticism of the economic status quo. It means, among other things, recognizing that human freedom must develop in obedience to God and not succumb to the slavery of a misguided quest for autonomous self-sufficiency. Humans live in a creation whose ultimate standards and moral norms are given and sustained by a holy and righteous God, not by human beings.

One of the points at issue in this volume and in the wider Christian community these days is the relation between economic freedom and political responsibility in an increasingly complex and internationally compact world. The Protestant worldview that Stackhouse wants to revitalize is "one that does not see politics as the center of life or government as the comprehending social reality."

Meeks agrees that society should not be reduced to the control of a single force, but his worry is more with capitalist market reduction than with democratic political reduction. We must criticize a society, says Meeks, in which all spheres are controlled by market logic. To avoid this, he hopes that people might be able to democratize the economies of relatively small, self-sufficient regions of the world. These economically self-ruled regions would, he believes, enable people to fend off the dominant forces of global capitalism and allow communities to rule themselves for the economic well-being of all people in the given region rather than for the advancement of transnational corporations.

In contrast to both Stackhouse and Meeks, Berger is doubtful that Christian faith can provide anything more than indirect help in making moral judgments about economic well-being. He does not believe that Christian faith can "dictate codes of conduct that would be applicable to all historical situations." From Berger's point of view, "what is virtue, economically speaking, in one period of economic development may be vice in another, and vice versa." And one presumes that his judgment holds for institutions as well as for individuals.

Stackhouse and his respondents share a great deal when it comes to appreciating the complex, differentiated societies of our world. Nevertheless, one can sense in the contrasting comments above the significant differences among them with respect to identifying the institutions we should trust or fear the most as we seek to develop a Christian approach to economic life.

For the critical and discerning reader this new book series has much to offer. Stackhouse is bringing together an unusual group of authors and commentators—ranging from Protestant to Catholic and from Evangelical to the old Mainline—in pursuit of a worthy goal. "Above all," he says, "we shall have to recover out of ongoing discussion and debate a profoundly personal and intellectually compelling sense of the holiness and transcendence of God, and on that basis set forth a public theological ethic capable of shaping institutions on a global scale." If these authors can, in fact, break through to some new understandings of economic justice, these short books could prove to be the vanguard of a significant Christian contribution to life in the 21st Century.