Here’s the gist of Saving Time – the Economic Consequences of Hurry
Bad theology comes from the bad conscience of one generation in the West which has determined to separate itself from its own sources in its inherited culture, and to grasp the present so that no unknown or new thing may ever interrupt it. This bad theology generates the agendas which control an increasing proportion of our national economic product. The fear that as individuals we cannot cope with the responsibility for our own public action and economic relationships, and contrive agendas that delegate this responsibility onto the state institutions from which a large proportion of the population receives their identity and income. This secularist theology can load new burdens on the economy, and it can pay for them for a while by asset-stripping that culture, but it cannot support an open public square or healthy economy for its has no resources of its own.
Good, Christian, theology creates a culture in which we are open to other people and to new encounters with what we cannot control or know in advance, in which we concede our own transience, identify ourselves with those who will come after us and we get on with making the investments that will give them the same hope of prosperity we had.
A healthy economy is embedded within and driven by a healthy culture with a healthy public square. A society is healthy when the current generation acknowledges its obligations to its own progenitors and its duty to its successors and so recognises its place in the transmission of life and does not attempt to out-live its welcome.
Christianity creates secularity (wide tolerance) and cultural confidence. Left to itself, secularity tends to become ideological secularism (tolerance narrowing towards conformity and centralisation). Secularity remains secular only when the public square can receive the contribution of Christianity
The full version is at Scribd and there is more at the Saint Augustine Institute
Next Economy Working Group Events
March 10th Edward Hadas Re-Setting Money
May 5th
June 6th Paul Mills Give Gold a Chance? ? What the Bible really says about money and debt