Having : property and possession in religious and social life / edited by William Schweiker & Charles Mathewes.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Schweiker, William.

Mathewes, Charles T., 1969-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Property--Religious aspects--Christianity--History of doctrines.

Property.

Property--Biblical teaching.

Property--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Physical Description:

ix, 415 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Grand Rapids, Mich. : William B. Eerdmans Pub., [2004]

Summary:

The Last Few Decades have witnessed the expansion of market economies into a complex global system. From shantytowns in Africa and rural villages around the Black Sea to the high-tech worlds of Tokyo, Berlin, and New York City, no place on the planet has escaped this development. While the present conditions of economic life are unique to our time, the human impulses that stand behind them are not. People have always negotiated life in economic terms, constituting much of their personal and social identity in relation to the things they possess. What, if anything, might religious studies and theological reflection contribute to thinking about and responding to the basic human reality of "having"? The engaging inquiries found in this volume provide some answers. Distinct from books taking purely economic, political, or social-scientific approaches to the subject, this book uses resources from the biblical traditions to throw fresh light on the role of property and possessions in cultural processes. Well-known scholars from a variety of fields (theology, ethics, economics, and biblical studies) explore in new and penetrating ways how people find value in having things, and how having things, in turn, gives value to social life. Their work will interest anyone grappling with issues of ownership and consumerism in today's global age.

Contents:

Introduction / William Schweiker and Charles Mathewes

Property and possession in light of the Ten Commandments / Patrick D. Miller

Sharing and loving: love, law, and the ethics of cultural memory in the Pentateuch / Andreas Schuele

Possessing wealth, possessing women, possessing self: the shame of biblical discourse / Claudia V. Camp

Silver chamber pots and other goods which are not good: John Chrysostom's discourse against wealth and possessions / Margaret M. Mitchell

Subjectivist "faith" as a religious trap / Michael Welker

The body and projects of self-possession / Jean Bethke Elshtain

What is enough? Catholic social thought, consumption, and material sufficiency / Christine Firer Hinze

On using the world / Charles Mathewes

Material grace: the paradox of property and possession / David E. Klemm

Reconsidering greed / William Schweiker

The cultural contest for our attention: observations on media, property, and religion / Günter Thomas

Identity, possession, and myth on the web: yearning for Jerusalem / David M. Gunn

Avarice, prudence, and the bourgeois virtues / Deirdre McCloskey

Property and possession: the moral economy of ownership / Arjo Klamer

Economies of grace / Kathryn Tanner

Appendix: Bibliographic resources on property and possession: a critical analysis / Jonathan R. Gangle.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 383-415).

ISBN:

0802824846

OCLC:

53900459