God in the Business World

God and Business

The first two Commandments

The first two commandments we find in the Bible are found in the sentence: “Be fruitful, fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28). We have happily complied with the first request, with over 7 billion people populating our planet. God elaborates on the second command in Genesis (to subdue the earth), by giving to humanity control of all the resources of the world  (Gen. 1:28b – 30). This command, namely to work, is so basic to society and its survival that it deserves special attention.

Other worldly theology

When we read the letters of Paul, we sense that he expected that the second coming of Christ was just around the corner, so much of his advice was to focus on the heavenly kingdom, not even to bother to get married. The book of Revelation looked forward to an apocalyptic and imminent parousia. Subsequent writers of theology were largely monastic males who had deliberately retreated from the world to focus on matters spiritual, so they too hardly touched on the world we live in. In fact, the world is a place of sin, we need to climb aboard the Catholic ship and sail to heaven, avoiding contact as much as possible with the sinful world. The very influential theologian Augustine, reinforced this dualism and retreat from the planet by writing about the two cities, the city of the world (evil, to be avoided) and the city of God, to be desired above all things. So we have been presented a very “other-worldly” theology, a theology perhaps hanging in the air, not dealing with issues down on the ground. This is a form of top-down theology, deductive in nature, formulating general principles and then looking to applying them on the ground.

The Church’ Social Teachings.

One of the Church documents which came down to earth by actually speaking about worldly matters, specifically about trade unions, (Rerum Novarum, 1891), is seen as the start of the Church’s Social Teachings (there are in fact earlier writings too which look at issues of social justice). However, the various documents which followed this encyclical, were never really passed on to the laity by the clergy, who by and large, have not been in the world of work themselves, so that these documents did not arouse much interest in them. For this reason the Church’s Social Teachings have often been referred to as the Church’s best kept secret. Today  Seminaries do teach about the Church in the World, but to me it seems that many of the students, not being in the real world, but in a detached, academic environment, do not really take these teachings to heart and so fail to pass these on to the laity when they arrive in a parish.

Incarnational Theology

We also need a more inductive theology, reflection arising from the bottom, from the world itself. We also need to bring teachings down to earth, or risk being irrelevant. We need to incarnate the Gospel in the real world and relate it to real life. A number of Popes have decried the huge gap between faith and real life. Surely of the most profound reasons for this has been for that the Church has for so long, avoided dealing with the real world. It formally opened its doors to the world around it in 1965 with the Second Vatican Council, having retained a medieval outlook in the face of a world which had changed radically. Not only did the Church find itself in a an era referred to as the Enlightenment era, to which it needed to adjust, but also to the so called postmodern era, which has slowly been emerging.

The Church can be proud of its Social Teachings, however, and it is my hope to generate attention to these and to the reality of God’s presence in the world of work.

The world of Work

We have been given the earth with all its resources, and we are stewards of this creation, meant to use these gifts to provide for our needs. We have the honour of being co-creators with God in finishing off an unfinished world, using the talents he has given us. Thus work is more than providing for our needs, but a participation in God’s creative activity, as well as being a service to humankind. The Lord is in effect our employer. It is our responsibility and right (all of us) to develop all of creation by intelligent effort. We were not created to remain static, but to have dominion, to develop, to cultivate the garden of the earth.

Work was not a punishment for Original Sin, it was part of God’s plan before the Fall. It is after the Fall that work acquires many negative aspects. We soon realise, when we reflect, that work is not always a happy experience, sometimes far from it. Properly organised, work should be a major source of human and spiritual growth and fulfilment. Most adults are called to the world of work, and so work itself is a normal means of being sanctified. It would be wrong to assert that only the “spiritual” makes us holy, this is false dualism. We become holy by work, and the way we carry it out. Jesus richly ennobled work by himself being a worker.

Basic Human Rights

We all need basic goods and services such as food, clothing, shelter, medical assistance and education. When we look at the real world, we find so many people short of theses basic necessities. Jesus talks about the Father’s providence (Matthew 7:25-34) with confidence, so what is happening in the world economy that is working against God’s providence, somehow stifling it? The world of work, of course, has been marred by sin.

The Encyclical Quadragesimo Anno (1931, the fortieth year from the date of Rerum Novarum, 1891) sees the fundamental reason for injustice and variance from Christian principles in social and economic matters, as rooted in “the disorderly affection of the soul, a sad consequence of original sin”. We are thus easily misled by our desires, we have an inordinate desire for money and possessions, our conscience is dulled and we trample on the rights of our neighbours.

The Free Market

In this postmodern world, one of the widespread ideologies that have retained their influence is capitalism. Apparently when Trevor Manuel became Minister of Finance for South Africa, he was quickly invited overseas to attend a course on Free Market economics. Business loves the Free Market, except when it goes against it. We are currently in the throes of a major financial crisis, and most commentators see greed for profit as the basic cause of this turmoil. The trouble is there is nothing apparently better. Marxism and communism have been discredited, but today too Capitalism is being more seriously questioned. Perhaps not surprisingly, a publisher in East Germany of Karl Marx’s Das Kapital,reports record sales of this work in 2008. The great depression of the 1920’s in America and Europe apparently drew millions to embrace communism and Marxism in various countries, and even Fascism, which was oposed to Capitalism.

It is always impressive to see the ingenuity of people in the Free Market, but we need to make major qualifications to avoid such destructive financial collapses, and to preclude serious interest in the socialist ideologies once more. I hope to explore further issues dealing with God in Business in this blog.

There has already been considerable comment on the current financial crisis by Church leaders. Harsh words are used against those responsible, such as “bank robbers”, “gross and unregulated misbehaviour in markets”, “the false god of markets” to mention but a few.

I end this blog with an observation by Ched Myers (A Biblical Vision of Justice, in Priests and People, May 1997). When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert (Mt 4: 1-11), Satan offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus were to worship Satan. Myers’ conclusion is that at the very least, there is a marked influence of evil in all parts of the world, including that part which provides for our all our needs. The market place is far from a neutral ground, it is influenced by a wide variety of values, some good and some bad.

27th October, 2008.