Divine Economy

What has theology to do with economics? They are both sciences of human action, but have traditionally been treated as very separate disciplines. Divine Economy is the first book to address the need for an active dialogue between the two. D. Stephen Long traces three strategies which have been used to bring theology to bear on economic questions: the dominant twentieth-century tradition, of Weber's fact-value distinction; an emergent tradition based on Marxist social analysis; and a residual tradition that draws on an ancient understanding of a functional economy. He concludes that the latter approach shows the greatest promise because it refuses to subordinate theological knowledge to autonomous social-scientific research. Divine Economy will be welcomed by those with an interest in how theology can inform economic debate.

In an assured and sophisticated debut novel, celebrated poet Priscila Uppal crafts a dark and suspenseful tale about the crimes of youth that haunt adult life. When she is sent away to a Catholic boarding school, Angela H. finds comfort and rebellion with a group of girls who call themselves The Sisterhood. On the verge of becoming women, the girls taunt and tempt each other with their budding sexuality. Angela’s festering sadness and frustration find a shocking target when the rituals of The Sisterhood take a violent turn at the initiation of angelic Bella. Tormented by her past, Angela seeks refuge in a religious life, hiding herself in the sheltered world of a convent. Now, twenty-five years later, buried evidence of Bella’s death has emerged, threatening to shatter the safety of Angela’s existence and her belief that the sins of the past can be redeemed. With startling emotional depth, Priscila Uppal captures the innocence and cruelty of adolescence, and takes us inside the rarely explored and shadowy world of female religious life.

God gives Green Stamps. A look at the theological and economic meanings of redemption.

What has theology to do with economics? They are both sciences of human action, but have traditionally been treated as very separate disciplines. Divine Economy is the first book to address the need for an active dialogue between the two. D. Stephen Long traces three strategies which have been used to bring theology to bear on economic questions: the dominant twentieth-century tradition, of Weber's fact-value distinction; an emergent tradition based on Marxist social analysis; and a residual tradition that draws on an ancient understanding of a functional economy. He concludes that the latter approach shows the greatest promise because it refuses to subordinate theological knowledge to autonomous social-scientific research. Divine Economy will be welcomed by those with an interest in how theology can inform economic debate.

Divine Economy And It's Real World Economic Principles is a book that reorients economic thinking. It is an intriguing and satisfying read for those interested in business ethics and economics or for those interested in philosophy or religion. The Divine Economy Model (c) presented in Chapter Two will change your impression of economics. Economics has been called the 'dismal science' but the Divine Economy Model (c) will instead make you see economics as bright and hopeful. Chapter One builds the case for the parallel emergence of humankind and the economy. It introduces their spiritual foundations. Chapter Two lays out the Divine Economy Model (c) which is an original and significant contribution to economic science. Chapter Three demonstrates how real world economic principles are interconnected and how the Divine Economy Model (c) helps to show their symmetry and reciprocity. Chapter Four identifies new directions in education and law that will serve to unbind the restraints, which greatly retard prosperity. The moral authority of the divine economy springs from human rights, which are the mirror images of property rights. The economic policies derived from the Divine Economy Model (c) are useful for inaugurating social change, see www.divineeconomyconsulting.com.

A novel economic interpretation of how religions have become so powerful in the modern world Religion in the twenty-first century is alive and well across the world, despite its apparent decline in North America and parts of Europe. Vigorous competition between and within religious movements has led to their accumulating great power and wealth. Religions in many traditions have honed their competitive strategies over thousands of years. Today, they are big business; like businesses, they must recruit, raise funds, disburse budgets, manage facilities, organize transportation, motivate employees, and get their message out. In The Divine Economy, economist Paul Seabright argues that religious movements are a special kind of business: they are platforms, bringing together communities of members who seek many different things from one another—spiritual fulfilment, friendship and marriage networks, even business opportunities. Their function as platforms, he contends, is what has allowed religions to consolidate and wield power. This power can be used for good, especially when religious movements provide their members with insurance against the shocks of modern life, and a sense of worth in their communities. It can also be used for harm: political leaders often instrumentalize religious movements for authoritarian ends, and religious leaders can exploit the trust of members to inflict sexual, emotional, financial or physical abuse, or to provoke violence against outsiders. Writing in a nonpartisan spirit, Seabright uses insights from economics to show how religion and secular society can work together in a world where some people feel no need for religion, but many continue to respond with enthusiasm to its call.

The theology of creation interconnected with virtually every aspect of early Christian thought, from Trinitarian doctrine to salvation to ethics. Paul M. Blowers provides an advanced introduction to the multiplex relation between Creator and creation as an object both of theological construction and religious devotion in the early church. While revisiting the polemical dimension of Christian responses to Greco-Roman philosophical cosmology and heterodox Gnostic and Marcionite traditions on the origin, constitution, and destiny of the cosmos, Blowers focuses more substantially on the positive role of patristic theological interpretation of Genesis and other biblical creation texts in eliciting Christian perspectives on the multifaceted relation between Creator and creation. Greek, Syriac, and Latin patristic commentators, Blowers argues, were ultimately motivated less by purely cosmological concerns than by the urge to depict creation as the enduring creative and redemptive strategy of the Trinity. The 'drama of the divine economy', which Blowers discerns in patristic theology and piety, unfolded how the Creator invested the 'end' of the world already in its beginning, and thereupon worked through the concrete actions of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to realize a new creation.

The Bible reveals that God desires to impart Himself into man for His full expression. This plan, this divine economy, is initially presented in Genesis and is progressively unveiled throughout the Old and New Testaments. Its ultimate consummation is the New Jerusalem at the end of the book of Revelation. From beginning to end, God's desire to be joined to man for His expression fills the pages of the Bible. In The Divine Economy, Witness Lee traces the flow of God's economy, from the creation of man in Genesis to its consummation in Revelation. Like a river that flows without interruption, the divine economy includes not only the creation of man as a vessel to contain God, but also the major steps taken by Christ—incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection--in carrying out the divine economy. Through faith in Christ, redemption is applied to man and the Spirit is supplied in man as rivers of living water. In the divine economy, the rich experience and practical, daily enjoyment of God is the common portion of every believer. The believer's first step into a living enjoyment of God Himself is to see God's eternal plan, as presented in The Divine Economy.