English

GOOD, BAD, OR INDIFFERENT?

WEALTH ACCORDING TO THE OLD TESTAMENT by V. Philips Long

I.  Introduction

Years ago I heard it said that wealth is a blessing according to the Old Testament but a curse according to the New.  This idea has struck me as insufficiently attentive to the continuity between the testaments.  In what follows I shall explore briefly the subject of wealth according to the OT, in the hope of suggesting a more balanced view of the biblical testimony. 

In this effort, I would like to adopt a two-pronged approach analogous to the procedures of modern archaeologists. One prong is the surface survey; the other is the in-depth excavation of a limited area.  In the former, the archaeologist travels quickly over the terrain simply collecting what can be found on the surface.  In the latter, s/he sinks a trench into a particular piece of ground with the hope of extrapolating from that one sample some general features of the larger site.

We begin with a surface survey of the biblical landscape, noting four prominent features (from among others, of course).  We then shall sink a trench in the area of the OT that offers the most practical personal instruction[1] on our topic—namely, the wisdom book of Proverbs.

Vocational Conversion

An Imaginary Puritan – Baby Boomer Dialog

Copyright - R. Paul Stevens 2000.

 It has been said that the sixteenth century Puritans[i] were people who had swallowed gyroscopes.[ii]  They were inwardly directed to the Lord's Kingdom and were not easily swayed by the attractions of the world. Crucial to this orientation was their understanding of the biblical doctrine of calling or vocation,[iii]

the idea that the whole of our life is a response to the summons of God and not merely a matter of self-directed development. William Perkins (1558-1602), while little known, deserves a modern hearing because he is the only Puritan[iv] author to describe calling in a systematic way.[v] Thus sections of his Treatise of the Vocations [vi] written around the turn of the seventeenth century,[vii] are paraphrased in an imaginary conversation between Perkins[viii] and a twentieth-century Baby-Boomer (that demographic population bulge of people born between l946 and l964)[ix] in order to contrast one modern view of vocation with a Biblical view. The endnotes offer a few clarifying comments and corrections of the imbalance of the Puritan view of calling.

William Perkins – Treatise on Callings: A Puritan Approach to the Doctrine of Vocation

Its value:

1. It is Biblical.
2. It is vocational counseling - concerned with how people are to live and make choices concerning their vocation.
3. It is practical – concerned with the realities of life in this world as Christians – it is the context of everyday life and work that our true spirituality is expressed.
4. It is lay-oriented – he makes no distinction between the experience of the ordinary Christian of the “call of God” and the person who serves as a minister of the Gospel.
5. It is heart-directed – concerned to evoke a deep personal spirituality that results in Christian character (so he deals with such things as covetousness, envy and impatience).

(All references to pages in The Works of That Famous Minister of Christ in the University of Cambridge by William Perkins (London: John Legatt, 1626).

TOWARD A THEOLOGY OF PROFIT by Don Flow

Profit, as defined by the accounting profession, is the excess of total revenues over total costs. Economists define “pure profit” as the amount of money remaining after making all payments for productive services and raw materials after the going rate of payments for the capital invested has been deducted. Profit is the estimated claim on wealth that can be used as capital for new efforts to create wealth. A Christian perspective on profit requires a correct understanding of what profit actually is, how it is created, who has a just claim on it, and what role it plays in a business, all in the context of a biblical understanding of human nature, stewardship, justice, and community.

Understanding Profit

Profit in an organization must be understood in the context of the productivity of capital. In the long term, the return on invested capital must exceed the cost of capital to the organization. If the firm fails to do so, it is technically a destroyer of all kinds of wealth in society -- finances, intellect, and humanity.

Executive Summary

Most of the difficulties we face in mobilising the people of God towards marketplace ministry are due to an inadequate understanding regarding the theology of work. This shortcoming basically arises out of a less-than-comprehensive theology of creation, redemption and eschatology.

God the Worker

God not only authored work but he himself was a worker (Gen 1, 2; Jn 5:17; Rev 21:5). Throughout the Bible, we see different images of God as a worker namely, shepherd (Psa 23), potter (Jer 18:6), physician (Matt 8: 16), teacher (Psa 143:10), vineyard-dresser (Isa 5:1-7) etc. God is as active and creative today – creating, sustaining, redeeming and consummating – as God was when this five billion light year universe was begun.

The Soul of Entrepreneurship

 FROM MAX WEBER TO THE NEW BUSINESS SPIRITUALITY

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[There can be] no capitalist development without an entrepreneurial class; no entrepreneurial class without a moral charter; no moral charter without religious premises.^[1]

            In the classic film “Wall Street” Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) typifies the entrepreneur for many.  “The lesson in business,” he tells Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), is “don't get emotional about stock, it clouds the judgment.”  Gekko is constantly in a telephone conversation, using language such as “block anybody else’s merger efforts,” “Christmas is over, business is business,” and “I want every orifice in his body flowing red.”  In a famous scene, Gekko redefines greed: “Greed is good, greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures that essence of the evolutionary spirit.”  It is interesting that Gekko uses the word “spirit” in a film that exemplifies the secular humanism that has been the dominant cultural environment of business in the Western world for several decades.  But there is a change in Western culture that makes the question of a moral charter for entrepreneurship and even the search for a religious/spiritual foundation apt if not urgent.

The Recovery of Creation Theology as the Horizon of Marketplace Theology Movement

Philip Wu

President, VocatioCreation Ltd., Hong Kong

In this essay, I try to stretch in very brief terms the possible relationships between creation theology and marketplace theology movement from my experience as an advocate of the movement, a business executive, and a student of the Old Testament.

There are at least three incidents or resources that cause me to consider the possible close relationship between OT creation theology and marketplace ministry. The first one goes back to my seminary years and in fact continues into the present moment. Over the past several decades, a shift in emphasis has taken place in OT theological studies. This change marks a paradigm shift from a once exclusive stress upon the mighty salvation of God in history to God’s formative and sustaining ways in creation. On a related front, we notice another important development in OT scholarship, namely, a renewal of wisdom studies. It is fair to say that wisdom studies had long been an orphan in OT scholarship. Starting from the 1960s, however, a vigorous new effort in wisdom studies was undertaken. In a general analysis, wisdom theology has the ongoing, generative order of creation as its subject, and itself is a confessional reflection upon creation, its order, its gifts, its requirements, and its limits. The recovery of creation in OT theological studies seems timely to the emergence of marketplace theology movement.

The Creation of True Wealth

R. Paul Stevens

God came to earth as a worker. Jesus was born in the marketplace, in fact in a hotel. Not actually in a nicely prepared suite but in the underground parking garage because the inn already had full occupancy. He was wrapped in a towel provided by the laundry service and placed in the back seat of a car.  He grew up in a working-class home. As a young man he learned a trade and before he had worked a miracle or preached a sermon he pleased the Father so much that at his baptism the Father said, “You are my beloved son with whom I am well pleased.”  Of Jesus’ 132 public appearances in New Testament, 122 were in the marketplace. Of the 52 parables Jesus told, 45 had a workplace context. Jesus called 12 normal working individuals, not clergy, to build His church. And some of them had questionable professions (tax collector, zealot). How can this be? Can we be human beings that are rich toward God and be so in the marketplace? What does it mean to create true wealth? And what is the true meaning of our lives, especially our lives in the workplace? Jesus doesn’t merely welcome these questions. He positively demands that we ask them, and he does so through parables.

The Church and the Marketplace:

Naming the Reality and the Challenge

Steve Brinn

An Unhealthy Détente

Over the past 37 years, as several close friends worked faithfully in church and para-church positions, my own journey unfolded in the marketplace. I practiced law, managed a real estate and resource investment company, operated a 3500-acre ranch and currently am leading a medical imaging software start-up. All along the way I have struggled to keep my faith vitally connected to my labors.

I am hardly alone in this: far more saints report every day to work outside the church than inside it. It is true that women and men in all vocations (including priesthood) face the same daily challenge – holding fast to hope in Christ and showing up for work with eyes open, without despair. Yet this common struggle, to approach daily labor with hope though the world groans for salvation, almost always is more difficult for the working laity than it is for their shepherds, for several reasons.