Christian Mission and Economic Systems

Description

Christian mission in the twenty-first century has emphasized endeavors that address poverty alleviation, business as mission, marketplace ministry, rural/urban development, microeconomics, and Christian attitudes toward money and consumerism. However, neither the macroeconomic circumstances in which the church does such ministry nor the assumptions that believers have absorbed from the larger economy have been adequately explored.
Christian Mission & Economic Systems gathers scholars, experts, and practitioners to address the relationship of Christians to the economic systems in which they are embedded and do ministry, and to evaluate the different cultural and religious dimensions of both micro- and macroeconomic systems around the world from a kingdom perspective.
Practitioners doing business as mission will grow in their understanding of the significance of local economic practices. Students and academics will benefit from the critical assessment of the intersection between micro- and macroeconomic systems in the contexts of specific ethnographic circumstances. Missionaries and churches will glean new insights on the difference that being a Christian makes to economic life. NGOs, nonprofits, or other Christian organizations doing work related to markets will benefit from a challenge to their previous understandings. Since work for the kingdom always takes place in some kind of an economic environment, this book will equip Christians in a variety of capacities to be more effective in their ministries.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Philosophie et théologie
• Growth
• Christian Church

Informations

• Publié par: William Carey Publishing
• Date de parution: 16 février 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780878089437
• Langue: English

Extrait

The book makes a significant contribution in rethinking the relationship between Christian mission and economics. The studies introduce fresh approaches like reciprocity in economic understanding, learning from Islam s approach to free-market capitalism, the moral logic explaining bribes in some cultures, and the economic struggles of pastors in the developing world. The studies set a benchmark for empirically grounded, theoretically informed research about the contexts of Christian mission. Its innovative research approaches are a good model for those researching Christian mission.
Vinay Samuel, founder and director emeritus of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies
This book is a treasure chest filled with information providing invaluable help for understanding the laws, folkways, and mores governing economic practices cross-culturally. It also enables us to gain perspectives on our own capitalistic systems and to judge them according to Scripture. Those who believe that missionaries are obligated to contextualize the essential gospel message, while avoiding the tendency to impose Western socioeconomic values on those in other cultures, will find this book extremely helpful. I read these essays twice and still did not distill all the gems they hold.
Tony Campolo, speaker, evangelist, and founder of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education
An important contribution by gifted scholars and practitioners to our understanding of how economics intersects with every aspect of Christian mission. A better grasp of the crucial issues raised in this book will greatly strengthen and improve contemporary missions.
Ronald J. Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action and author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger: Moving from Affluence to Generosity
Christian Mission and Economic Systems is a grand world tour of the fiscal and relational realities of the world s amazing diversity in how transactions are made, how enterprise is financed, and how communities thrive. This book is an indispensable research volume for people undertaking cross-cultural mission.
R. Paul Stevens, professor emeritus of marketplace theology, Regent College, and author of Doing God s Business: Meaning and Motivation for the Marketplace
The present book is an amazing combination of profound scholarship interacting with authentic, longtime cross-cultural experience of its authors. The diversity of nationalities, cultural and scholarly backgrounds of the writers, and the variety of themes investigated by them opens the eyes and the mind for realities that lie well beyond the classic and simplistic capitalism versus socialism and/or communism debates of the last century.
Martin Hartwig Eitzen, professor of missiology and intercultural studies, Universidad Evang lica del Paraguay, and director of the Instituto Aquila y Priscila
A desire to bring a spiritual influence does not cancel the impacts of economic forces on one s activities. A simple default response to diverse extant economic dynamics is inadequate. The wide-ranging contributions from multiple authors alert us to this basic truth, but also encourage us to understand and respond intelligently to dominant Western economic systems. Christian Mission and Economic Systems is vital reading for those concerned with mission who want to see beyond the blinkers of their cultural presuppositions on economic issues.
Jim Harries, professor of religion, Global University (Assemblies of God), and founder of the Alliance for Vulnerable Mission
This collection is pointing to a missing link-that transitional form that should be found between the enterprise of mission as we know it and the primordial jungle of economic realities, where life and ministry began in simplicity before climbing out of the dark waters and onto the shores of ministerial reality. Herein is an evolutionary call to do partnership better, do patronage better, and even bribe better. Furthermore, we are called to have evolved vision to see the ministry world through economic eyes and to see economics through kingdom eyes. A part of this new vision includes seeing the realities of Majority World friends who are not really experiencing life more abundantly. In this regard Christian NGOs are called upon to continue becoming what they are, i.e., Christian. This is an important volume, especially in terms of asking hard questions as mission continues integrating kingdom values with life as it is.
Frampton F. Fox, Associates in Community Training Solutions

Christian Mission and Economic Systems: A Critical Survey of the Cultural and Religious Dimensions of Economies
Copyright 2015 by John Cheong
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise-without prior written permission of the publisher, except in brief quotes used in connection with reviews in magazines or newspapers.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION , NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NASB) are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE , Copyright 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked (MSG) are from The Message. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.
Published by William Carey Library
1605 E. Elizabeth Street
Pasadena, CA 91104 | www.missionbooks.org
Andrew Levin, editor
Brad Koenig, copyeditor
Alyssa E. Force, design
Cover Image: iStockPhoto
William Carey Library is a ministry of the
U.S. Center for World Mission
Pasadena, CA 91104 | www.uscwm.org
Digital eBook Release BP 2015
ISBN 978-0-87808-987-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Christian mission and economic systems : a critical survey of the cultural and religious dimensions of economies / John Cheong and Eloise Meneses, editors.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-87808-075-5 - ISBN 0-87808-075-9 1. Missions. 2. Economics. 3. Economics-Religious aspects-Christianity. I. Cheong, John, editor.
BV2063.C47 2014
261.8 5-dc23
2014037294
To the memory of
PAUL HIEBERT
a father to his family,
a mentor to his many students,
and a pioneering thinker and
writer in missiology
CONTENTS
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Contributors
INTRODUCTION: CHRISTIAN MISSION AND ECONOMIC REALITIES
Robert J. Priest
1 EXCHANGE, RELATIONSHIPS, AND RECIPROCITY: LIVING AS A CHRISTIAN IN A CAPITALIST WORLD
Eloise Meneses
2 CULTURAL DIMENSIONS OF FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS: A BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE AND AN APPROACH FOR PARTNERSHIPS IN MISSIONS
Mary Lederleitner
3 ISLAMIC BANKING AND ECONOMICS: A MIRROR FOR CHRISTIAN PRACTICES AND MISSION IN MUSLIM CONTEXTS
John Cheong
4 CHRISTIAN MISSION AMIDST THE CULTURAL AND SOCIOECONOMIC DYNAMICS OF BRIBERY AND EXTORTION PRACTICES IN THE PHILIPPINES
Jason Richard Tan
5 SYMBOLS OF THE WEAK, SYMBOLS OF THE GOSPEL: THE UPSIDE-DOWN GOSPEL IN RELATION TO PATRONAGE SYSTEMS IN WEST JAVA, INDONESIA
Lindy Backues
6 WESTERN MISSION-ESTABLISHED CHURCHES AND MINISTRY IN MALI S COLLECTIVIST ECONOMY
Douglas Wilson
7 SUBSISTENT AND SUBSTANTIVE COMMUNITIES UNDER ATTACK: THE CASE OF ZOWE IN NORTHERN MALAWI
Mike Njalayawo Mtika
8 FLYING BLIND? CHRISTIAN NGOS AND POLITICAL ECONOMY
David Bronkema
Glossary
Index
FOREWORD
With this book, evangelical missiology enters a brave new world. Economic systems is a subject category rarely broached in either the theory or the practice of Western evangelical missions. Influenced by the subversively pervasive economic ideologies in which we and our defining institutions live and move and have our being, conservative Christian missiologists have been loath to acknowledge-let alone wrestle with-the ethical-missiological implications of economic systems .
It is a risky and potentially embarrassing thing for missiologists to venture into the realm of entrenched economic custom, as we see in the response of experts to Jesus s apparently naive understanding of economics. You cannot serve both God and money, Jesus said-to which the Pharisees, who loved money (and could pride themselves on their more sophisticated grasp of economic realities), responded by sneering at Jesus (Luke 16:14). Sneers and snickers-often from the seemingly most pious-continue to deflect piercing kingdom truth on economic questions. That is why the editors and publishers of this book are to be thanked for making the subject the focus of serious missiological reflection.
While all nine essays in this volume (including Priest s introduction) are worth reading, several seem to me to be groundbreaking. I will comment primarily on the chapter by John Cheong, the chief editor and originator of the book. Islamic banking and economic practices are more consistent with biblical teaching than those characterizing the West, he argues (chap. 3). Because religious principles rather than bald economic interests constitute the bottom line for banking institutions infused with Qur anic and hadith values, they tend to be more responsible to local communities and relatively less myopically focused on profit. Entitled Islamic Banking and Economics: A Mirror for Christian Practices and Mission in Muslim Contexts, this essay should be required reading not just for missionaries, but for earnest Christians serving within the power structures of Western financial institutions and businesse