Body of Christ in a Market Economy

Rev. Dr. Gawain de Leeuw, OA, is the rector of St. Bartholomew’s Church in White Plains, New York. He is a life professed member of the Order of the Ascension, a dispersed Benedictine community. He serves on the Task Force on the Theology of Money for the Episcopal Church.

• Acknowledgments – Introduction – Reading Scripture – Engaging Economics – Theological Responses – Learning to Desire – How Jesus Saves – The Church and Salvation in a Commercial World – Bibliography – Index.

“There’s always call for a fresh book explaining how it’s possible people can remain faithful followers of Jesus within the capitalist economic system. Gawain de Leeuw’s work steps up to the challenge with wisdom, brio and cutting-edge anthropology. Filled with insights, his study wrestles over and over with the aporias separating the reckless giving of the gospel from a market system based in debt, exchange and commodification, or between the relationship of love modeled by Jesus and the fetterless desire and rivalry modeled by money. The fact that capitalism has proven the best way of increasing productivity while satisfying endless wants does nothing to lessen the othering and exploitation at its heart. Gawain offers us the church’s dream of the sabbath as antidote, a time and place where competition and inexhaustible demand are replaced by rest, community, and blessing. But how can the church enable this practically? He suggests the successful management of rivalry as the core church practice, through sacraments, prayer, good governance, and cooperative networks. But perhaps the most radical impact of de Leeuw’s work is to continue to knead the leaven of the gospel into our economic worldview until the times really do catch up with Jesus. As he vividly puts it, ‘By ingesting Jesus, (we are given) the power to reconsider the game, the rat race, the system of materialism that creates a status war with others.’”Anthony Bartlett