RELIGION AND SOCIETY

Religion and Society

Religion and Society Final Exam

1. Religion and Economy

Religion has a two-way interaction with political economy. With religion viewed as a dependent variable, a central question is how economic development and political institutions affect religious participation and beliefs. With religion viewed as an independent variable, a key issue is how religiosity affects individual characteristics, such as work ethic, honesty, and thrift, and thereby influences economic performance(Gaustad,, 1962).

Religion can play a vital role in the development and maintenance of a vital and just economy. This is because a healthy economy requires that all persons view one another with dignity, not as objects of exploitation. Religion calls for people to respect the divinity in each human being, regardless of class or cultural background. To view one another with dignity means to respect labor and property. Competition ensures that wages and prices reflect a fair representation of the labor embodied in a product. Religion recognizes the divinity of the human being in an economy when it advocates free competition, protection of property rights, and encourages people to share and behave well toward one another( Fowler, Allen, Laura, 1999).

Interestingly, the topic of the relationship between religion and markets need not rest on a particular belief system. The Gospel accounts clearly have Jesus calling people "to follow him," not (as many modern Christian religions would have it) "to worship him." The Catholic theologian Richard Rohr describes Jesus' intent not as the founding of a religion, but the founding of a movement. That movement is centered on Jesus' claim that the most important commandment is to love God with one's whole being, while the second most important commandment is to love one's neighbor as one's self (Mark 12:29-31). Apart from being the driving force behind Christianity, this directive is also consistent with Buddhism (Visuddhi-Magga, chapter xvii), and Islam (Koran, 107.1-7). The directive to respect the dignity of humans (particularly those in need) is consistent across major religions(Adams, 2002).

Jewish and Christian religious traditions contain a fundamental concern with economy.2 The normative approach to religion and economy assumes that religion is constituted by a kind of attenuated political economy as in ancient Israel and classical Christianity.The normative approach to religion and economy assumes that religion is constituted by a kind of attenuated political economy as in ancient Israel and classical Christianity. “Economy” was at the center of these theological traditions up until the end of the 17th century. The oikonomia tou theou as accounted in the Hebrew and Christian scripture (especially in the Torah, the Prophets, and the teachings and actions of the Jesus community) shares many general characteristics of oikonomia as practiced in antiquity and summarized by Plato in The Republic and Aristotle in The Politics.3 But this is not simply a mater of ethics for traditional Israel and Christianity(Wald, 2003). It is a theological matter: the knowledge of God is given in the accounting of an economy and relationship with God is constituted by the performances of an economy. The critical retrieval of the traditions of oikonomia and its partial practice in religious communities can fund ...