Praying the Lord's Prayer in the Global Economic Era

In Isaiah 61:1 we are told that the Spirit of the Lord anoints the prophet to proclaim good news to the poor. This verse was later applied to Jesus in the Gospel of Luke, emphasizing care for the poor as central to the Gospel message. Throughout the teaching of Jesus a significant amount of attention is given to those who are poor, oppressed, outcast, and overlooked (Blessed are the poor, the meek will inherit the earth, the last will be made first, etc.). Rarely is this theme in the Bible emphasized by the American church, which has instead largely focused on demanding their constitutional rights. As this is coupled with our culture’s over-emphasis on individualism, inhabited by a Nietzschean concern for self, consideration of the needs of others is sorely lacking in the American Christian community. Accumulation of wealth, violence in the name of self-defense or defense of country, lawsuits stemming from a martyr complex, alienation of others—in short, manifestations of paramount self-interest—are dominantly understood as compatible with, even championed by, the gospel message. As the church engages in this collective self-importance, colluding with the kind of social structure that Christ came to counter and transform, it pays little attention to the extreme wealth disparity and substantial poverty rates present all over the world. This author will seek to show that the Spirit’s ministry of the gospel is especially concerned with the under-privileged, and that neglecting the under-privileged is therefore neglecting the gospel. In an age of globalization, in which developing countries are pressured into trade agreements that favor developed, privileged countries, the gospel message’s concern for the poor is needed more than ever. It will be proposed by the author that the church needs to revive that message and proclaim it to our modern social world. On a micro level, this means churches need to preach and act on meeting the needs of the poor and oppressed in their vicinity. On a macro level, it means churches need to advocate politics that favor the developing countries, the poor, and the under-privileged. Reform of trade agreements, debt relief, and tax codes are tremendously important in order to progress toward sustainable, prosperous livelihood for those in poverty. The church must take up the Spirit’s work addressing the rights and necessities of those in need, and that necessarily has both practical and political implications.

Chancy Kibombwe, 2022

This thesis is intended as a short qualitative exploration of the topic and should be viewed as such. It may not provide a comprehensive or exhaustive examination of the subject matter. Additionally, some of the content contained herein may reflect personal opinions and perspectives. Readers are encouraged to seek more in-depth and comprehensive research on the topic if required for academic or professional purposes. The information presented in this thesis should be considered as a starting point for further exploration and discussion.

Christian mission and economic systems: A critical survey of the cultural and religious dimensions of economies, eds. John Cheong and Eloise Meneses. Pasadena, CA: William Carey., 2015

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 Frampton F. Fox, Associates in Community Training Solutions CHRISTIAN MISSION & ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

The aim of this paper is to examine Agamben's engagement with economic theology in order to underscore its relevance for the critique of contemporary neoliberal politics. In the first part, I offer a summary of the central arguments of The Kingdom and the Glory. In particular, I focus on both the treatment of the notion of oikonomia in the early Christian discussions on the divine trinity and its relation to the providential paradigm of government. I then show how this genealogy of oikonomia is useful for a political analysis of the present. In doing so, I respond to some of the criticisms leveled against Agamben's The Kingdom and the Glory by Alberto Toscano. Finally, I will conclude by showing how Agamben's work is of particular importance for the study of neoliberal political rationality.

Verbum et Ecclesia, 2017

Commenting on the current national sentiments, he explained that we 'are where we are as a result of what unethical leadership did to us as a nation' (Raborife 2016).

The Journal of Academic Social Science, 2023

The study's focus is on how capitalism emerged on the historical and evolutionary stage as the economic system of Western Christian civilisation. In particular, scaling, also known as the Christian reformation process, is a crucial step for Western cultures to take in order to overcome the stagnation of the Church era. Due to the effects of the concepts of sola seedling, sola scriptura, and sola gratia, the illumination experienced during this time period resulted in significant shifts and transformations in the socio-cultural field. The economy has been one of the areas most impacted by this process. By releasing the individual from the centralism and domination of the Church, the evolving Christian thinking appears to have led to the person being more individualized and participating more in social activities, notably in economic life. The purpose of the study is to attempt to disprove the notion that economic activities and decisions are rationally motivated. On the contrary, the choices made are also influenced by philosophical and theological concepts. Conservatism and religion have an impact on choices and behaviors in the economy. The macroeconomic effects of religious restrictions and orders on those who make the majority of economic decisions have a wide range of effects on both the political and cultural axes as well as the individual's everyday economic circumstances. As an illustration, the sanctification of the free market economy, globalization, and the political and cultural decisions made as a result can all be taken into consideration in this perspective. The Capıtalıst Codes Of Chrıstıan Faıth.

2019

The global economic crises at the beginning of the third millennium revealed the harmful consequences for the whole of society and the environment that the myth of the “deified” economy brings. Many researchers have been encouraged to begin exploring the causes of crises intensively. The author thinks that it is more important to look for ways to implement the economy in a way that serves the common good and a common home. The path to renewal of the economy the author sees described primarily in the direction that Pope Francis presented in the Laudato si'. Therefore, he puts forward the thesis that in the light of Laudato si' (Christian) spirituality plays an important role in the economy. To confirm the thesis, the author briefly defines economics and spirituality. Then follows a presentation of fundamental orientations based on the analysis in Laudato si' that could enable economic recovery. In the end, the author describes how a renewed Christian spirituality and dial...

Scientia et Fides, 2021

Although Political Theology examined mainly the political dimension of the relationship between God-Father and God-Son, it is paramount to consider the political performance of the Holy Spirit in the Economy of Redemption. The Holy Spirit has been characterized as the binding cause and the principle of relationality both referring to God’s inner life and to God’s relationship with His creatures. As the personalization of relationality, the Holy Spirit performs a unique task: to bring together what is apart by means of organisation. This power of the Spirit to turn a plurality into a unity is manifested in the Latin translation of oikonomía as disposition, that is, giving a special order to the multiple elements within a certain totality. Within this activity of the Spirit, Theodicy can be regarded as the way to depict God’s arrangement of the world and of history, bringing everything together towards the eschatological Kingdom of God. The paper aims at showing this fundamental activity of the Holy Spirit in Christian Theology, and intends to pose the question on how to think on a theology beyond theodicy, that is, how to think on a Trinitarian God beyond the categories of sovereignty and totalization.

2020

The purpose of this paper is for today's readers to understand how then prayer progressively becomes a mediator related to a good mission in the context of the Old and New Testaments. Prayer is an expression of a covenant relationship between man and God. In this article, the author attempts to show that mission in its complexity shows a function that never changes to prayer to God. Old Testament Biblical figures, Abraham, Moses, Prophets, David, Solomon are almost never separated from the life of prayer, so also how much the New Testament gives important emphasis on prayer and its impact on missionary work. Compared to the various prayer activities carried out by churches today, postmodern readers need to explore the relationship between prayer and further mission to be able to better understand what the mission looks like in the perspective of God from the Old Testament to the New Testament to implement it contextually and relevant.