A week earlier than usual, Laureldale Cottage (a/k/a Davenant House) was the site of the seventh annual Convivium Irenicum. (Concluding posts on the previous Convivia I attended can be found here, here, here, here, and here.) Sponsored by the Davenant Institute, these annual events bring together academic and non-academic scholars, pastors, and assorted others around the project of retrieving of the wisdom of the Protestant catholic tradition and translating it to the current situation.
The theme this year was "Reforming Justice: Protestant Wisdom, Economic Freedom, and Modern Injustice." "Justice" in the West is part of a long and well-developed tradition of biblical, philosophical, theological, and political reflection. The current emphasis on "social justice" both inside and outside the Church added a note of timeliness to this year's Convivium. What will follow in this and subsequent posts will be a series of my reflections on some of the papers that were presented. This year set a record for break-out sessions so I won't comment on all the papers but they will eventually be published, as have those of previous years. (For my comments on one of the earlier collections go here.)
The airline connections of a number of folks, including our keynote speaker, were delayed so the Covivium began with a presentation of a work-in-progress by Joe Minich titled "Labor, Dominion, and Alienation." Joe's paper began with three preliminaries (on what he was not aiming to accomplish), thirteen reflections ramifying the title, and ending with eight "Reflections on an Economy of Love." I found the latter most interesting because I've given some thought to the same topic, at least as it pertains to the social practice of contracting. In my words, what factors would have characterized exchange in an Edenic economy? (My thoughts here and here.)
Minich's eight reflections began with the "limited claim that the societal project that dawned in the coming of the Lord Jesus, to the extent that it moves us toward a restored vision of human relations, makes the Christian church (in the broadest sense of that term) a key site for testifying to how human communities may treat one another." In other words, he was not looking to change contract law or even the social practice of contracting as a whole but to give Christians insights into how they might re-frame their participation in the market.
The framework for Minich's analysis of the economics of love includes the following, rather startling, observation:
Minich could only gesture to how a dominion of love might redirect the moral imaginary supporting the contemporary distended, alienating economy toward one in which participants recognize their mutual birthrights to administer the resources of the world as stewards of the creator God (in accord with their particular gifts). I can hope that the final version of this paper will provide some examples. In the interim, Minich gives grist for the mill of reconsidering how the material flourishing of the contemporary world order can also provide greater space for human flourishing.
The theme this year was "Reforming Justice: Protestant Wisdom, Economic Freedom, and Modern Injustice." "Justice" in the West is part of a long and well-developed tradition of biblical, philosophical, theological, and political reflection. The current emphasis on "social justice" both inside and outside the Church added a note of timeliness to this year's Convivium. What will follow in this and subsequent posts will be a series of my reflections on some of the papers that were presented. This year set a record for break-out sessions so I won't comment on all the papers but they will eventually be published, as have those of previous years. (For my comments on one of the earlier collections go here.)
The airline connections of a number of folks, including our keynote speaker, were delayed so the Covivium began with a presentation of a work-in-progress by Joe Minich titled "Labor, Dominion, and Alienation." Joe's paper began with three preliminaries (on what he was not aiming to accomplish), thirteen reflections ramifying the title, and ending with eight "Reflections on an Economy of Love." I found the latter most interesting because I've given some thought to the same topic, at least as it pertains to the social practice of contracting. In my words, what factors would have characterized exchange in an Edenic economy? (My thoughts here and here.)
Minich's eight reflections began with the "limited claim that the societal project that dawned in the coming of the Lord Jesus, to the extent that it moves us toward a restored vision of human relations, makes the Christian church (in the broadest sense of that term) a key site for testifying to how human communities may treat one another." In other words, he was not looking to change contract law or even the social practice of contracting as a whole but to give Christians insights into how they might re-frame their participation in the market.
The framework for Minich's analysis of the economics of love includes the following, rather startling, observation:
The New Testament--written in a context of plenty of social injustice--makes an uncomfortable move for modern persons. It is precisely in the task of loving that we find a dimension of the human calling (its most essential form) from which we cannot be alienated by the workings of other men--a task for which we are each individually gifted. And while Paul encourages those who can get their freedom to get it, he encourages those who cannot get their freedom to love their masters. But why? It is not just to “be good,” but precisely as a mode of dominion relative to the master!For all the sense of alienation experienced by those with "bullshit jobs," no one can be alienated from loving those whom they so uselessly (or even oppressively) serve. As Minich elaborates, the Christian call to live other-directed lives of love undercut the moral warrant for the institution of slavery. Dominion through love, in other words, doesn't reify unjust relationships, it subverts them. (Which does not, Minich also observes, exclude other, more direct assaults, on injustice.)
Minich could only gesture to how a dominion of love might redirect the moral imaginary supporting the contemporary distended, alienating economy toward one in which participants recognize their mutual birthrights to administer the resources of the world as stewards of the creator God (in accord with their particular gifts). I can hope that the final version of this paper will provide some examples. In the interim, Minich gives grist for the mill of reconsidering how the material flourishing of the contemporary world order can also provide greater space for human flourishing.
No comments:
Post a Comment