Unfortunately, much current thinking seems to be founded on some problems already mentioned above. One is the predominant role that categories of thought from economic theory and business practice seem to maintain in shaping theological understanding. We have just seen how economic thinking profoundly influences development thinking and policymaking. But the influence of economic thought on religious, or theological, thinking is also noteworthy.
The implications of this relationship have received much attention with perhaps the most famous analysis being that of Max Weber. His 19th century historical review, The
67 Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, 276-278.
Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, is still a foundational work in a number of
academic disciplines.68 In that lengthy essay and using a technique akin to Diamond's reverse questioning, Weber ponders not why some regions are poor, but why modern institutions that made some wealthy arose where and when they did.69 Exploring intriguing questions such as "What is the extent to which religious beliefs cause people to be economically productive?" and "What is religion's capacity for reforming attitudes and institutions?"70 Weber attributes the root cause to Reformed Christianity. John Calvin's teachings on predestination assumed both that people had no control over their eventual destinies and a responsibility to live as if going to heaven. Calvin's descendants in America, the Puritans, brought with them a combination of convictions that prompted them to work hard and spend little.
Along the way, however, something else happened.71 It wasn't so much the hard work and ascetic thriftiness that eventually became significant. It was that as people became
"dominated by the making of money, by acquisition as the ultimate purpose of [their lives],"72 they became economically rich. What began as a religiously motivated ethic
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 2n Roxbury edition trans. Talcott Parsons (Los Angeles, Roxbury Publishing Company, 1998). While Weber is typically credited with first identifying a link between the rise of Protestantism and the development of capitalism, Karl Marx had pointed this out as well. "The money cult implies its own asceticism, its own self-denial, its own self-sacrifice—parsimony and frugality, a contempt for worldly, temporal, and transient satisfactions: it implies the striving for everlasting treasure. Hence the connections of English Puritanism, but also of Dutch Protestantism, with money making."
As quoted in Paul Baran, The Political Economy of Growth (New York: Prometheus Paper Back, 1957), 49.
Baran himself attributes the environment that Weber analyzed partially to other historical circumstances. These include evolving conceptions of production and accumulation in light of technological change. Ibid., 47-49.
See also William Lecky's discussion of how general intellectual tendencies of historic periods affect people's thinking. The History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, Vol. 1 (London: Watts and Company, 1910), 4ff. Further, see Ellis and Ter Haar's discussion of wealth in Worlds of Power, 131 ff.
69 Elizabeth Kolbert, "Why Work? A Hundred Years of 'The Protestant Ethic,'" The New Yorker (November 29,2004): 154.
70 Willis, "Like Ships Passing," 134-136.
71 Kolbert, "Why Work?" 156.
" Weber, The Protestant Ethic, 53.
eventually evolved into "an ethic of everyday behavior that conduced to business success."73
Unfortunately, however, Weber foresaw this situation as leading to "the steady, soulless spread of global capitalism."74
Since asceticism undertook to remodel the world and to work out its ideals in the world, material goods have gained an increasing and finally an inexorable power over the lives of men as at no previous period in history. To-day the spirit of religious asceticism—whether finally, who knows?—has escaped from the cage. But victorious capitalism, since it rests on mechanical foundations, needs its support no longer...In the field of its highest development, in the United States, the pursuit of wealth, stripped of its religious and ethical meaning, tends to become associated with purely mundane passions, which often actually give it the character of sport.
Weber's thesis was controversial from the beginning and he spent the rest of his life defending it. But it has also become the work by which he is principally known and some say its enduring timeliness makes it remarkably compelling even today.
Timely it seems indeed when we consider current talk of the role of religion in contemporary society and specifically in relation to international development policymaking and practice. In the first instance, consider how the authors of a recent study on religion and
73 David Landes, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations (London: Little Brown and Company, 1998), 175.
74 Kolbert, "Why Work?" 160. Jeffrey Sachs (End of Poverty, 316) criticizes Weber's thesis saying history has shown that such culturally based arguments ultimately give way when economic circumstances change. By the mid-2000s, for example, Catholic Italy and Ireland had overtaken the Protestant UK in terms of per capita income. Sachs's main disagreement with culturally based explanations such as Weber's are that they are usually founded on prejudice and that they assume sets of unchangeable values. "What look like immutable social values turn out to be highly malleable to economic circumstances and opportunities. Although not all cultural values change so easily, values deemed to be inimical to economic development are rarely, if ever, unalterable features of a society." (Ibid., 317). What is significant for our purposes about this line of reasoning is Sachs's own unswerving fidelity to a particular way of understanding the world.
5 Weber, The Protestant Ethic, 72. Gendered language, when directly quoted in this study, will not be amended. It is understood as a product of its time and place.
76 Kolbert, "Why Work?" 154-155. Kolbert also notes that Weber wrote this essay following recovery from a nervous breakdown.
economic growth (a study one analyst claims "out-Webers Weber"77) talk about their findings.
If you think of the 'religion sector' as being in the business of producing beliefs, [Barro] suggests, then the way for it to be most productive is to generate a lot of belief without expending a lot of resources or time... 'If you separate out religious activity from religious beliefs, then religious beliefs do continue to play an important role in productivity,' says McCleary. The researchers conclude that strong belief despite minimal practice is the most economically advantageous religious orientation.79
Several points are noteworthy. First, the study's authors identify a common conception that underlies Western assumptions about what religion is but that is often taken for granted in everyday situations. This is the close association of religion with belief, a viewpoint that
Of)
Western theology can trace back to the early influences of Platonism. Understanding religion as fundamentally within the realm of belief can weight our perceptions of it towards mental processes and emotions while downplaying religion as experience and action. Second is the preponderance of economic categories of thought (for example, "the business of production," "expending resources," and "economically advantageous") to describe religion and religious experience. In this view, business practices that represent certain economic theories in action seem to define what religion is}1 Further, religion's most meaningful attribute might be its economic usefulness. Since the authors of this study are economists, it
11 Harbour Fraser Hodder, "Devout Dividends: Heaven, Hell, and Profits," Harvard Magazine (September- October, 2004), 13-14.
78 Robert J. Barro and Rachel M. McCleary, "Religion and Political Economy in an International Panel" PRPES Working Paper #10, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 2002), http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/rsrchpapsum.asp?ID=518.
79 Hodder, "Devout Dividends," 14, emphasis in original.
!0 Van Harvey, A Handbook of Theological Terms (New York: Collier Books, MacMillan Publishing, 1964), 80.
81 As noted at the opening of this chapter, economic theories that dominate discussions in the Global North and especially the United States arise largely from capitalist principles. These are the sorts of economic principles, rather than socialist principles for instance, that this study understands to be informing development theory and theology more generally at the present time.
is not surprising that they should write about religion from that vantage point. But how does the situation appear from the perspective of the more overtly religious?
Consider how some contemporary influential religious voices talk. Rick Warren, author of the wildly successful Purpose Driven Life, is viewed not as "a theological innovator" but "a straight-down-the-middle evangelical." Warren quotes management expert Peter Drucker and has been compared by political scientist Robert Putnam to entrepreneurs
"Ray Kroc and Sam Walton, pioneers not in what they sold but in how they sold."83 Warren is also displaying an increasing interest in Africa and he and his wife practice "reverse tithing" or living on 10% of their income while giving away 90%.84 As a shaper of thinking concerning religion and international development Warren is a powerful figure. His apparent comfort with economic and business ways of thinking as they inform his theory and practice, however, bears notice.
Similarly, the talk of a large group of evangelical leaders who backed an early 2006 initiative against global warming deserves note. They said they stood against climate change out of faith convictions concerning love of neighbor and stewardship of God's creation.
They also, however, praised hugely profitable transnational corporations such as BP, Shell, General Electric, and DuPont for their '"innovative measures' to reduce emissions." Shell, in particular, has been internationally condemned for its environmental and workplace policies
Richard Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I Here for? (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002).
83 Drucker was a mentor to Warren. "The Man Who Invented Management: Why Peter Drucker's Ideas Still Matter," Business Week (November 28, 2005): http://www.businessweek.com/cgi- bin/printer_friendly.pl?chan=mz. Malcolm Gladwell, "The Cellular Church: How Rick Warren's Congregation Grew," The New Yorker (September 12, 2005): 63. "Rick Warren's Second Reformation," Beliefnet.com (n.d.): http://www.beliefnet.com/story/177/story_17737_l.html. James A. Smith, "Legislators Welcome Rick Warren in Session's Final Week," Florida Baptist Witness (May 6, 1004):
www.floridabaptistwitness.com/2523.article.
84 "Rick Warren's Second Reformation." The success of Warren's book and related materials has made him a multi-millionaire.
and practices in Nigeria. So, it appears that from the evangelical Christian standpoint economic and business ways of thinking can comfortably reside with religious understanding.
The situation is not markedly different in some other expressions of Western Christianity. Anglicanism, for example, has a long history of social engagement backed by theological rationales that could offer a solid foundation for informing current development policymaking and practice. But in the mid-2000s much Anglican based talk seemed to give great authority to economic categories of thought. For example, Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation (EGR), an American grassroots organization devoted to supporting the MDGs has made the case this way:
Half a century ago, in the midst of global violence, a President, who foresaw the tangible possibilities and principles of both peace and justice, drew on his faith as an Episcopalian. From it Franklin Roosevelt had the political courage to conceive of the Four Freedoms, and to support the creation of the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. We now need once again to draw upon that vision. We need to raise our voices and bend our backs to achieve it, for without such a vision, scripture tells us, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18). We believe that a preliminary outline of that vision already exists in the MDGs, set out by the United Nations four years ago and adopted by all member states, the World Bank and the IMF, among others.
Laurie Goodstein, "86 Evangelical Leaders Join to Fight Global Warming," The New York Times (February, 8, 2006): http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/08/national/08warm.html?th=&emc. In the mid-1990s, the Nigerian government executed Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists who were demanding that Shell compensate the people from whose land the multinational was pumping oil. Naomi Klein, "A Noose, Not a Bracelet," The Nation (June 27, 2005): http://www.thenation.com/docptrint.mhtml?I=20050627&s=klein. By the mid-2000s, internal resistance to the presence of foreign energy company owners in Nigeria was becoming increasingly violent. See, for example, "Oil Workers Kidnapped in Nigeria," BBC News (February 18, 2006):
http://newsvote.bbc.co.Uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/Africa/4726680.stm.
Anglicans such as F. D. Maurice (1805-1872) developed versions of Christian socialism that preceded what is now called the Social Gospel movement. "Maurice's views are significant because he developed them in circumstances not unlike our own when technological and economic changes were simultaneously creating breath taking wealth and a massive underclass. Further, his own willingness to think both theologically and politically—even though it cost him a couple of professorships—provides a courageous model for us today.
Maurice based his scholarship and ministry on the idea that the incarnation represented God's self-revelation in a radically mutual way. God in human form meant not only that people would become co-workers with God but that all creation could be considered sacred: 'God is in everything.'" Elizabeth Parsons, "Bearing Witness Wherever We May Be: The Episcopal Church's Heritage as a Resource Within a Pluralistic Democracy"
(unpublished paper, Harvard Divinity School, 1998), 16.
We are not naive—there are many reasons to assume that the MDGs will not be reached. But if there is to be failure, we need to acknowledge that the reasons for it will lie not in a shortage of material resources, but in a lack of political will and moral vision.
A casual reader of this declaration might not know that the MDGs were, in large part, the brainchild of economist, Jeffrey Sachs, not of civil society representatives. And there is much to admire about an international focus on improving the quality of life for billions of the world's poor; but there is also room for good theological commentary here. For example, what are the theological implications of churches working out of the comfort of the Northern
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hemisphere to halve the numbers of those living in extreme poverty elsewhere? The casual reader might also not be aware of the degree to which World Bank and International Monetary Fund policies and procedures have been credibly documented as worsening rather than improving the Global South's poverty rates. But the Anglican Communion was heavily involved in the Jubilee movement of the late 1990s that brought these policies to the world's attention and pressed for international debt relief. That EGR seems not to have made connections between these points is unfortunate at best.
The World Faiths Development Dialogue that focused on "the aims and nature of the development process" exhibited similar domination by economic rather than religious ways of thinking and talking.89 Its discussion about power, relationships, and appropriate actions acknowledged the extent to which religion and religious institutions have been ignored by
"Preach the Gospel at All Times, Use Words if Necessary" (Cambridge, MA: Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation, 2004): 11. More recent versions of this booklet have been somewhat amended. See the 2006 version at http://www.e4gr-more.org/egrbook2006.pdf.
88 The story of the widow's offering in Mark 12:41-44 and Luke 21:2-4 would suggest that the relative affluence of the donor in relation to the recipient makes a difference for both.
89 This was an effort begun in 1998 and headed by then Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, and the World Bank's president at the time, James Wolfensohn.
development theorists, policymakers, and practitioners. But the innate, potential goodness of development itself appeared above question. Rist's and Korten's critiques would find this odd. For it is a matter not just of religion having a place in international development91 or of
92
taking spirituality into consideration when engaging in development policy and practice. It is a matter of how that place is understood from the outset; what ideas and ways of thinking set the standards; and whose way of talking becomes the norm.
In sum, we might say that Weber's early analysis has outdone itself. A particular set of economic views has become intimately intertwined with our theological views on international development. For development theory to be overly grounded in economic ways of thinking is a problem in itself. It is an even bigger problem if theological thinking that could temper this situation is enmeshed in similar understanding.