February 1999 reading list

Vancouver Island Theological Society

What did they read on Vancouver Island in February, 1999?

The subject for February 9, 1999 was Christian Responsibility in a Global Economy

Tentative Bibliography - and its problems

The problem is that this is a huge area where the message (as usual in human problems) is that there are no simple solutions. Essentially there are two sides to the problem each of which can masquerade as the whole answer. First there is the religious or moral criterion of what is worthwhile in human life from which comes our conviction about what is right or wrong. The problem with this approach is that if taken by itself it can decline into a "buns for the poor" triviality or else particular economic forces are demonized and one winds up tilting at windmills. The other side of the problem is the practical criterion, namely how do things really work in economics and what sort of changes would produce the effects we are looking for? Taken by itself economic prescriptions assume as self-evident somewhat naive notions about the meaning of human life such as more is always better. The prayer attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr for courage to change the things that should be changed, for strength to endure the things that cannot be changed, and knowledge to know the difference sums up the matter very neatly .

Here is where I am so far in assembling books on the subject.

Pratt, Cranford and Roger Hutchison, Christian Faith and Economic Justice: Toward a Canadian Perspective (Burlington: Trinity Press, 1988) ISBN: 1-55011-060-8
Mieth, Dietmar and Marciano Vidal, Outside the Market No salvation (Orbis Books: Concilium 1997/2) ISBN 1 57075 127 7
Ambler, Rex, Global Theology, Trinity Press International, 1990 ISBN 0-334-02434-X
Finn, Daniel, Just Trading (Nashville: Abingdon and The Churches' Center for Theology and Public Policy, 1996) ISBN 0-687-05209-2

There are some older works that deserve attention to remind us of of some basic principles:

Temple, William, Christianity and Social Order
Niebuhr, Reinhold, Moral Man and Immoral Society

Finally there are some web links worth looking at: (The first five articles are from First Things a journal always worth reading if for no other reason than that it makes you angry at it about important issues)

William McGurn, "Documentation: Christianity and Democracy"
A debate between Patrick Glynn and Glenn Tinder, "Time for Utopia? An Exchange"
Michael Novak, "An awakening from Nihilism: The Templeton Prize Address"
Max L. Stackhouse, "Humanism after Tillich"
Vaclav Havel, "Forgetting We Are Not God"
Hays Rockwell, " We Cannot Escape: Reflection on Christian Responsibility in the 21st Century" (Hays Rockwell is a bishop in the Episcopal Church)
Stephen L.S. Smith, "Comments on Donald Hay's ‘On being a Christian Economist'"

In print form the following articles/book review at least indicate where the opposition to the global economy is to be found

John Zmirak, review in Commonweal 124 (July 18, 1997) 27-28 of Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith, eds., The Case Against the Global Economy.
Flavin, Christopher, "The Legacy of Rio," Christian Social Action 10 (June 1997) 8-13
Ufford-Chase, Rick, "Glimpsing the Future: Why Christians must resis the global economy," The Other Side 33 (Jan 1997) 12-17, 55.
Maria Paz Artaga-Regan "In the Name of Economic Well-being," Christian Social Action, 10 (June 1997) 29-32

I would appreciate any comments from anyone about content or bibliography.
I will try to add such comments below as time goes on.

Replies can be sent to me at:
jwunsch@islandnet.com