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The Row Boat"Had we but world enough, and time..." * Economy of Grace4/11/2005 20:56:25Tonight I heard a lecture given by Kathryn Tanner from U. Chicago in which she presented a new theory of economic thinking that draws its inspiration and explanatory language from Christian narratives. She attempts to translate the theological economy of grace to material economies. Using Creation and Christ's salvation of humanity as starting points, she extracts a notion of non-competition in both a.) property and persuasion and b.) having and giving. Private property is replaced with public goods as the foundational principle of her system. She is a theologian, and I was principally interested in her theological methodology. There is a tremendous beauty to it, but I worry that her thinking has been completely abstracted from God. The great fear, the great sin even, of such a direction, is that God's name and authority be used to underwrite a political-ideological (idolatrous? see a previous post) program. She repeatedly called the notions she extracts "odd" - and I'm not sure what this means. When I asked whether she sees this sort of economic idea as an implied commandment in the narratives she draws it from, she finally seemed to say no. These narratives, Tanner claims, are inspiration and plant seeds in the imagination. I would agree wholeheartedly except that the ideas she is talking about certainly didn't need holy scripture to come about. I think of regular Marxism, as well as commune movements &c. Thought they might indeed owe dues to scriptural mythology, such philosophies have often located themselves as about as secular as you can get. The usefulness of phrasing these notions in religious language strikes me as uncertain, and the whole project precarious. Tanner's work is probably an excellent example of what I have called Reliquary Theology and I now realize that I am quite pessimistic about its potential. To theologize without the sensation of belief, without fear of the living God, is to abandon responsibility entirely, as well as to call up inflated and confusing authority to one's own position or notion. It is realpolitik disguised as truth and myth, which may be beautiful in a sense, but cannot be done in good conscience by a person who in the least bit wonders if there is a God who listens. At both ends, Reliquary Theology leads to contradiction. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
re: Economy of Grace - 4/11/2005 21:01:54
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