Ecumenical Reflexions on Political Economy. A summary of ten years
of deliberations on issues of development by an informed group of
economists, sociologists, political scientists and theologians. Compiled
by Catherine Mulholland. First published by WCC Publications,
World Council of Churches, 1988. Internet edition by Dr. Robinson Rojas

1. The Church and Economic Matters

Introduction

The title of this book will, for many people, pose two basic questions:
why are the churches concerned with economic matters? What are their credentials for becoming involved in economic issues?

Christians and churches need no justification for their involvement in economic matters. The church has always been concerned with questions of social organization, including the political and economic norms and systems that rnake up the organization of societies. Nor is this a departure from the gospel message. Believers and followers of Christ were meant to be concerned with such issues as production, distribution of income, division of labour, relations between rich and poor, etc. During the Middle Ages the churches were deeply involved in social and economic matters, not only at a theological level but also practically through monasteries and the creation of orphanages and hospices. The churches of the Reformation persisted in this line and the concept of vocation as God's call to be faithful in each place and in all places implied that through economic activity human beings could glorify God.

The ecumenical movement has always been concerned with economic matters and social and political organizaion. The Life and Work movement paid much attention to economic problems. The continued concern within the World Council of Churches with such issues led to the world conference on "Christians in the Technical and Social Revolutions of our Time", held in Geneva in 1966, which awakened church constituencies to the development challenge and opened the way for decisions which crystallized in the creation of the Commission on the Churches' Participation in Development (CCPD) in 1970. Another sub-unit of the WCC which is concerned with similar matters is the Sub-unit on Church and Society.

2 Ecumenical Reflections on Political Economy

The 1978 Zurich consultation on "Political Economy, Ethics and Theology: Some Contemporary Challenges" was organized jointly by the Commission on the Churches' Participation in Development and the Sub-unit on Church and Society. The aim of the consultation was to give a more articulated intellectual content to the WCC's social vision in the search for a just, participatory and sustainable society. The consultation was a major event in the process of ecumenical reflection on socio-economic matters. It was on the basis of that experience that CCPD decided to create an Advisory Group on Economic Matters (AGEM). The group is composed of economists, sociologists, political scientists and theologians, who try to reflect together from the perspective indicated at Zurich. The purpose of the AGEM is to assist the CCPD, the WCC and its member churches to give serious thought to the economic problems that confront the world today.

The AGEM has met six times so far and its reflections have been published in five volumes. The prcsent book is an attempt to provide a summary of AGEM's work so far. Behind that work is the conviction that economic affairs - while not the whole of human life - are an important part of it and therefore must be of concern to Christians and to churches. The evolution of thinking on the responsible society, on the inter-related requirements of growth, justice and peace for development, and on the just, participatory and sustainable society bears witness to the continued validity of this concern.

Concern and reflection

Concern calls for reflection. If reflection demonstrates significant violations of the principles of justice, participation and sustainability and, in particular the exclusion, exploitation and oppression of poor people and vulnerable groups, then a radical critique is required of Christians and churches.

To be valid, such a critique must be built both upon Christian values and on an accurate perception of the main issues, problems and dynamics of the systems and institutions that are studied. It should identify and call attention to what, from a Christian viewpoint, is wrong. But it should go further than that. It should also seek to identify both the principles which would provide a foundation for the transformation of the imperfect present, and some of the concrete steps which could contribute to that process.

This is not to say that the churches should seek to develop detailed blueprints for the organization of every aspect of society. They have

The Church and Economic Matters 3

neither the authority nor the technical competence to do so. What they do, or should, have is the ability to identify the main directions of required change, to indicate some of the potentially valid means for achieving at least part of that change, and to test the operations of churches and church-related organizations in the relevant area by the standards they propose for others.

This study will look at the economic order and some major political economic issues through the eyes of the ecumenical movement via the work and the process of reflection of the Advisory Group on Economic Matters. The book is divided into two major parts: the first part presents some general themes, concepts and areas of concern for the ecumenical movement, and the second part treats in greater detail four major issues in political economy with which the AGEM has been particularly concerned.

General themes, concepts and areas of concern for the AGEM

Concern for deyelopment

The concern for development is a major strand in AGEM thought. In the ecumenical movement it takes the form of concern for the development of people - their struggle to liberate themselves from foreign domination, their efforts to improve their economic conditions, and their fight against various forms of oppression. This concern has been an integral part of the ecumenical movement from its very inception and became a major focus of attention at the Fourth and Fifth Assemblies of the World Council of Churches (1968 and 1975). It springs from three common convictions; in the ecumenical approach to development.:

1) the conviction that the development of people is an integral part of the gospel of salvation even when the processes involved are primarily secular;

2) the conviction that the churches have a special responsibility towards the poor and oppressed;

3) the conviction that development must be truly ecumenical in nature, comprehending the whole world and all its diversity.

The problem of the ecumenical movement has been to give concrete meaning to these affirmations within specific contexts and at given times.

Development thought within the World Council of Churches has followed the changing ideas on development in theory and practice. In the 1950s the current views shared by the ecumenical movement held

4 Ecumenical Reflections on Political Economy

development to be a process whereby the poorer countries needed to "catch up" with the industrialized countries by following the same path to development. It was believed that the basic problem of development was related to the non-availability of matenal resources and technical knowledge, which were to be transferred from the richer countries to the poorer ones. The ecumenical movement, within such a view of development, assumed the role of a kind of moral conscience of the world, urging the richer Western countries to share their abundance with the poorer and the less fortunate.

In the 1960s and l970s what was originally a minority view became a major wave as development came to be seen as an interrelated process of social justice, economic growth and self-reliance, with the accent unambiguously on the first of these. The route to development consisted of getting rid of the fetters of injustice embedded in the political and economic institutions within countries and at the international level. This shift in emphasis was accompanied within the ecumenical movement by efforts to get member churches involved in development activities, particularly through action-reflection programmes of people's participation.

There was increasing support for this point of view and the WCC took positive steps at its Fifth Assembly in Nairobi in 1975, where the churches expressed their conviction that the process of development is essentially the struggle of the poor against the structures of domination and oppression, and endorsed the view that the fight for institutional change within countries and in the context of international relations is a major part of the quest for genuine development. This was followed up a few months later when the WCC initiated a process based on the action of the churches at various levels of society, focused on the search for a just, participatory and Sustainable society.

The search for a Just, Participatory and Sustainable Society (JPSS)

Much Western understanding of justice comes from the Roman notion of justitia, which is basically atomistic and distributive justice whereby each person is given his/her due. But in the Old Testament we see justice more in terms of "righteousness". The prophets challenged the injustices of a society in which the poor went hungry and were exploited by the rich. This idea is built on in the New Testament (see e.g. Luke 1:51-53; 4:18; 5:20-21; 5:24-25;18:24; James 2:1-7; 4:13-5:6) where justice means the vindication of the poor and the oppressed, and the societal dimensions of justice are reinforced.

The Church and Economic Matters 5

The pursuit of justice goes beyond distribution and involves participation in deciding what is produced and how it is produced. Participation is a human right. People should be enabled to reflect on their own problems and to articulate their own perceptions of solutions to such problems. Only if this is done can development be seen as a liberating process; as the creation of conditions for people and societies, particularly those at present oppressed and marginalized to identify their own needs, mobilize their own resources and shape then own future.

Justice has to do with the production and distribution of the fruits of human efforts and nature's bounty, not only by and among people now existing but also between present and future generations. Justice over time requires sustainability. This concept became central in development discussions in the ecumenical movement in the 1970s. The dimension of sustainability in development had long been neglected at all levels of analysis, but came dramatically to the fore in the aftermath of the oil shocks of these years.

While justice points to the necessity of building societies that will be genuinely participatory, of correcting maldistribution and overcoming the gap between the rich and the poor within and between countries, sustainability points to humanity's dependence upon the earth, and the way in which world society organizes itself for developing natural resources. However; there is a close relation between the two. "A sustainable society which is unjust can hardly be worth sustaining. A just society that is technologically and ecologically unsustainable is self-defeating."

This development is seen as not only a question of economic growth but also of social justice and self reliance. After the Nairobi Assembly the WCC began to concentrate on JPSS. In the light of the experience of many churches all around the world the WCC became convinced that participation and sustainability could not exist without justice, and that the struggle for justice demanded a praxis of participation as well as ecological responsibility, and an informed confrontation of structures and powers which threaten the future of humankind.

Critique of the International Economic Order

A view of development which takes social justice as its starting point necessarily views the foundations and progress of economic growth in a different way. In the process of reflection, the WCC, along with many others, began to take a closer look at the international economic order. It quickly became clear that the current economic order was based on persistent injustice most clearly visible in the co-existence of affluence for

6 Ecumenical Reflections on Political Economy

a few and terrible misery for many. According to the experiences of many churches, it was clear that participation and sustainability could not exist without justice and that justice must be the basis for a new economic order.

The present international economic order is based on a paradigm in economic thought which has its roots in the following assumptions:

1) economic growth must be a prelude to social justice and not vice versa;

2) inequality is needed to produce savings and capital formation;

3) economic growth itself promotes equitable redistribution;

4) rationalization means mechanization;

5) stability and the absence of inflation are to be preferred to the inevitable uncertainties associated with dynamic change;

6) economic development in the developing countries should be modelled on that of the industrialized countries;

7) the development of underdeveloped countries are dependent upon, or even optimally secured by, a continued rapid economic growth in the rich Western countries.

This paradigm of political economy currently prevailing in Western industrialized societies, and influential in many others, can be criticized in three broad respects:

1) it gives insufficient weight to the historical and spatial dimensions;

2) it relies on a reductionist approach;

3) it defines its area of concern too narrowly.

As such, these assumptions could never form the basis for a just, participatory and sustainable society. On the contrary, the AGEM and others suggested that the old international economic order was one of disorder rather than order and had resulted in disappointing rates of growth and employment, failure to come to terms with limited energy sources, growth of a new protectionism and bilateral trade agreements based on 'beggar-thy-neighbour" policies and a global monetary crisis.

Towards a new paradigm

The changing ecumenical concerns in the international development debate led to the quest for a new paradigm in political economy, a new model to interpret reality and to guide actions. At the Zurich consultation in 1978 economists, social thinkers, and theologians considered the nature of current economic paradigms and their correlation or lack of correlation within political economic reality, viewed from the perspective of the Christian faith.

 The Church and Economic Matters 7

The concern of Christians with the causes and consequences of economic crisis is grounded in the conviction that God created, and continues to create, order out of chaos, wholeness and salvation out of inequality and alienation. Since its first Assembly in 1948, the WCC has been struggling with the meaning and implications of this basic theological vision for the way political, economic and social life should be organized. The ecumenical movement is under obligation to judge the economic processes at work in the world in the light of the gospel message. The development paradigms of our world have to be tested by that message and not merely by their own internal criteria.

According to the new paradigm, economics cannot simply be reduced to production and consumption of goods but must be related to people's lives and values. The reorganization of production should open the way to the real participation of people - and especially of poor people, of women and of minority groups - at all levels through a process of planning and the social control of major productive sectors of the economy. It is the people’s values that should animate the reconstruction of society, not the goal of private profit for the few. Only if this transformation is attained will it be possible to talk of a real new strategy of development which fosters justice, participation and sustainability by means of a change of actors, motives and values.

The paradigm must be built up to serve the ecumenical movement of the 1980s and 1990s. Its operative understanding will be drawn from the perspective provided by the struggles of the poor and oppressed for a just, participatory and sustainable society and its economy will be based on common social concerns of all peoples of the world. Its policy should enable people to order their total relationships in accordance with their socio-cultural, political and historical biography. Theology should be oriented towards Jesus the Liberator of the oppressed and exploited and the God who has challenged us to collaborate in the establishment of the kingdom of justice and love in which the poor, the oppressed and the exploited will find their rightful place.

Towards a new system of values

A changed system of values is a precondition for change in economic systems. But what values should any economic system manifest, express, help to achieve? During the past twenty years it has become increasingly clear that all economic systems need to be tested in terms of whether and to what extent they put people at the centre of the development process and do so as subjects, not merely as objects, of that process. To

8 Ecumenical Reflections on Political Economy

understand development processes and the character of international economic relations requires an analysis of the basis of such a value-oriented paradigm. While the ecumenical critique of economics remains fluid, among the values and criteria increasingly accepted for testing existing economic systems, processes and institutions are the following:

1. Meeting basic human needs: Does the system realistically promise to meet the fundamental psycho-physical needs of human beings?

2. Justice and participation: Are these needs met equitably? Is there reasonable equality of access to the resources of a society?

3 Sustainability: Is the economic system ecologically and socially sustainable over generations?

4 Self-reliance: Does the economic system enable people to achieve a sense of their own worth, freedom and capacity, rather than being completely vulnerable to the decisions of others?

5. Universality: Do the economic system and economic policies focus on the above elements for the global human family, beyond national or regional political boundaries?

6. Peace: Does the economic system promote the prospects for peace built upon the foundation of justice?

The values and criteria for testing existing economic systems, processes and institutions are thus based in a concern for human development. This concern in the ecumenical movement has come to be understood in terms of support for the poor and the powerless in their struggle against all systems of exclusion and oppression. That which inhibits their freedom, well being and happiness is by definition a barrier, not a means to human development. Concern for the building of a truly human society - one which is at the same time just, participatory and sustainable - should be central to Christian commitment to and involvement in development. Although this concern is by no means unique to the ecumenical movement, we affirm that it stands at the heart of the biblical understanding of humanity and Christian mission.

Back to Top                                                Back to Cover