On Socialism and Capitalism

Both Capitalism and Socialism fail to dream theologically about work. Both views primarily relate work to money (wage-labor) and not to creation, thus we fail to see ourselves as co-creators with God and we deceive ourselves into understanding our work and ourselves as commodities for the production of wealth. I find it interesting that the second you criticize capitalism, People think you'd prefer socialism, people call you a socialist (or even a communist). I think this reality is a testimony to our apparent lack of imagination. Can't we do better, can't we try harder than both of these systemic options. Can't we come together in love and work together to give life and harmony for the sake of creation and not only for the sake of capital.

Too often we are alienated from the productivity of our work. It's just for money, so what we're actually producing, what we're contributing to the world becomes second (if that) when it should be of primary importance. Rather than finding ourselves alive in our work, offering life through our time and energy, we find ourselves experiencing a sort of death from which we can only escape in our "time off."

In Genesis 2, before any kind of curse enters the story, people are called to work, to till the soil. Work is part of the created order in which money is a non-factor and God is the only king. God invites the people he created in his image to participate with him in his work of creation by participating with him in the rhythm of work and rest. Therefore our very identity and the very image of God should made alive in work and rest. But instead, as money and the distribution of wealth creeps to the forefront of our imagination, work is less about the giving of life and the tilling of soil and more about how much I can make off of it. As wage labor trumps co-creation it becomes less about God's image and more about that of Caesar, whose image is riddled upon our currency. "Who's face is on this coin?... Give to Caesar what is Caesar's... Give to God what is God's."

Comments

TheoPoet said…
You're right about that---I believe also that the: Flaws Of Communism And Capitalism are:

The flaw of communism/socialism is that it places the individual in dependence on a welfare state instead of a radical dependence on God's Grace.

The flaw of capitalism is that it places an individual's faith in greed and a dependence on a free-market economy instead of a radical dependence on God's Grace.
Posted by TheoPoet at 6:50 PM
Labels: god's grace, jubilee economics
0 comments:
TheoPoet said…
I sort of tweaked my original post for my comment: TheoPoetic Musings: Flaws Of Communism And Capitalism
Mark said…
"Can't we do better, can't we try harder than both of these systemic options. "

In the words of Rob Bell in response to a question like "Capitalism or socialism?"...

Yup.