Grace and Mortgage: The Language of Faith and the Debt of the World

Anglican Theological Review, Summer 1998 by Bower, Richard Allen

Grace and Mortgage: the Language of Faith and the Debt of the Worid. By Peter Selby. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1997. xv 191 pp. 10.95 (paper).

Early in 1998 the British Government launched the Mauritius Mandate, a plan to help resolve the debt problems of poorer countries of the world. On the day of inaugurating this plan the Archbishop of Canterbury and Cardinal Hume of the Roman Catholic Church were featured speakers.

In February 1998 James D. Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, was at Lambeth Palace, along with the Archbishop of Canterbury and other leaders of the wc)rlc['s major religions, talking about world debt and global poverty. The World Bank has in recent years been criticized by many of the world's religious leaders for policies that impose "unrealistic and harmful demands for economic reform on governments as a requirement for receiving loans" (ACNS news release, Feb. 24, 1998).

At the inauguration recently of Njongonkulu Winston Ndungane as Archbishop of Cape Town, the principal theme of` his sermon was the immorality of the staggering South African debt, accrued during the years of apartheid, and hanc.ed on to the post-apartheid government, crushing any chance for economic development for the bulk of South Africa's people.

In Jul) of 1998 the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops will gather in Canterbury, England. High on its list of topics will be the issue of world debt. In the context of these remarkable events Peter Selby, Bishop of Worcester, has written a book on debt and its consequences, both in developed countries and in the other two thirds of` the world's nations, places swamped by debt and poverty.

"It is not an accident," Selby says, "that we have lost touch with the roots of on(, of the most important metaphors to have been used about the person and work of Christ. NVe have made it possible for ourselves to worship God and Mare non by simply allowing ourselves two separate kinds of language and not letting them interact in any way that would confront our dependence on the economy of credit" (p. 6).

Selby sees his book not as a recipe for resolving international debt, but as a reflection or vision which could "Empower and direct our negotiations with one another" (The Slavery of Debt," Anglican World, # 88, Autumn 1997).

Selby begins his book with a review of the theological issues raised by Dietrich Bonhoeffer fifty years ago as he sought to speak of a "religionless Christ," that is, a Christ freed of the pious language and images of a church that has little to say to the modern world, and that, more often than not, keeps people of faith at distance from secular language and issues.

Selby works through the credit economics of the developed world, then turns to the poorer nations who are clients of rich nations who have discovered the profitability of debt.

The book probes the ancient (and largely forgotten) wisdom concerning need and debt (chapter 7 ), a wisdom that prohibited usury, making a careful distinction between debt related to need, and debt for the consumption and production.

A chapter on the Hebrew concept of Jubilee (chapter 6) unfolds a vision of an economic order restoring justice. equity and harmony. Selby does not suggest we return to an ancient time of rural kinship economy, but insists on a wisdom that can provide a moral critique of a market economy operating on its own laws.

For me the most engaging part of the book was the chapter on "the economy of freedom" (chapter 8), where Selby speaks of the exchange economy (of ownership, rights, the strong and the weak, and profit), and of the gift economy (of stewardship, surprise, justice and community).

Global economics and the issue of the world debt are no longer issues solely for governments and economists. As issues of justice and human wellbeing, they are concerns for the Christian community. Peter Selby has done great senice in beginning the conversation in a serious way. This book can serve as a primer for thoughtful people who long for a language of faith large and fresh enough to bring a Gospel response to the complicated and crushing reality of world debt.

RICHARD ALLEN BOWER

St. Paul's Cathedral

Syracuse, New York