| Introduction
The global conditions of economic inequality and environmental exploitation are not new to the human race. However, the increasingly stark demarcations between the rich and poor and the rate of global environmental degradation continue to pose imminent threats to the integrity of human society and the biosphere. Affluent Christians, who have both the power to impact the health of their society and planet and a moral language that can inform their actions, must constantly re-evaluate their participation in the global economy in light of their responsibilities to uphold the long-term health and dignity of the whole Creation.
This paper presents a theological framework for assessing economic decisions that is not a simple formula for what is right and wrong, but rather a set of guiding principles that can be used to weigh the immediate callings of ministry with the long-sighted goals of sustaining the earth and the people on it for generations to come. Using the Biblical Jubilee tradition as a model, affluence can be redefined in a context that allows the celebration of material life within the broader context of community responsibilities. Jubilee, a text dictating a radical reshaping of Israel's economy every fifty years to redistribute land, free slaves, leave land fallow, and cancel debts, is critical in today's world because its principle's answer a culture of endless consumption and selfishness with a celebration of the chosenness of God's children, the preservation and enjoyment of God's blessings, and the assurance of a lasting Promised and Holy Land. Affirmed by the vision of Jubilee, Christians can and should enjoy material prosperity, while also striving to mold their lifestyles toward promoting economic justice and sustainable consumption.
Many theologians and scholars have used the Bible to develop principles directing modern economic living, and in this paper I will examine two theologically contrasting examples of this: one stressing the enjoyment of material prosperity as the proper goal for Christian economic living and another calling for the wealthy to direct their resources towards those who suffer injustice within the modern economic system. 1 I will consider arguments from these two contrasting theologies in detail in the light of the Year of Jubilee, a Scriptural theme cited in both which I find particularly useful in illuminating their agreements and disagreements about proper Christian economic behavior. Though the legislation is ancient, Jubilee remains immediately pertinent. Considering its core principles in light of modern theological debates about the appropriate use of wealth can extend the trajectory of its impact from the historic people of Israel to the economic ethics of modern Christians. It offers Christians a worldview that brings economic decisions into direct conversation with religious values because it allows them to see the global economy as a part of their religious identity. Though the practical implications of the ethical principles are complex, I will offer a framework within which those complexities can be assessed and acknowledged, even if they can't always be overcome. Thus, Jubilee can become a balance point for diverging points of view stressing enjoying material affluence and directing one's resources to help the world's poor, and it can provide direction for Christians seeking to navigate the complexity of economic decision-making today.
1 See also the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' “Economic justice for all: pastoral letter on Catholic social teaching and the U.S. economy” (Washington, D.C., Office of Publishing & Promotion Services, United States Catholic Conference, 1986), Pope John Paul II's encyclical “On the hundredth anniversary of rerum novarum ” (Boston, Vatican Translation. Pauline Books and Media, 1991), and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's Social Statements (http://www.elca.org/socialstatements/).
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