Episode 86 :: Walter Brueggemann on the Primal Power of Money, part 2
This episode’s on money and what we own, AND on an understanding of the Bible that shows sacred texts need to be used for the common good. They are not the possession of any one ideology despite the claims ideologies lay to sacred texts. Our guest today has shown consistently, throughout his career, that much of the Bible challenges injustices happening in the events of the day. We’re glad to bring you renowned Biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann discussing his recent book “Money & Possessions.” This is part two of a conversation that began in Ep. 80.
Much of our life activity revolves around possessions and money. That’s been part of civilization’s story and so permeates the Bible as well. Just how can a sacred text serve the Common Good on this primal issue that pervades our world? This episode gives a great example. And we need such examples because far too many uses of the Bible treat it as a book to scold immorality; or a book about one’s interior life; or justification of a MultiEarth worldview. But, truth is, most of the Bible speaks of economic, political, and social justice, or, as the case may be, injustice. It speaks up for women and the excluded. It critiques the powers, especially how they pursue more and more. On this episode of The Common Good Podcast on “the primal power of money and possessions,” we emphasize that the Bible is not to be read through the lenses of capitalism or nationalism or social privilege or middle class thinking. Rather, from beginning to end, the Bible portrays the tug between two worldviews. The one features a royal theology on how to live under kings and empires. The other features living connected with creation, wilderness, the fields, mountains, and seas. Those two worldviews are the ones vying today. The worldview of kings and empires as seen in the G20 nations, the World Bank, the stock exchanges, and the transnational corporations with budgets bigger than countries. The worldview of connection with creation as seen in the multitude of efforts to find the paths that lead to OneEarth living. Stay with us.
Walter Brueggemann was our guest in 2016 talking about his short devotional book “Sabbath: Resistance to the Culture of Now.” His recent scholarly book examines Money & Possessions throughout the entire Bible.
Part one of the two-part series in episode 80, presents his six theses about money & possessions in the Bible, observing their contradictory nature to the conventional wisdom and practice of both the ancient world and today’s society.
This episode, part two, is a brief survey of the theme of money and possessions throughout the Bible. Of course, Walter makes connections with contemporary politics.
The Contents, Preface, Foreword and Introduction, including the six theses, are available for free online. The entire 300 page book is fascinating; those items are essential reading. Essential Reading! — Contents, Series Foreword, Foreword (Richard Horsely), Preface, Introduction (Chapter One) — available free online.
To do a Jubilee piggy-back on what Brueggemann has said about the Year of Release in Deuteronomy, the word “release” in the Bible is associated with the practices of Jubilee. Jubilee releases what MultiEarth powers take and hold captive—that includes release from debt, release from unjust prison sentences, release from enslavement, release from child debt (or today we can speak of release from student debt). So release scandalizes the powers with what seems radical to the economics, politics, and social hierarchies of civilization. Thanks to Brueggemann for speaking of the Year of Release.
NEWS
If you haven’t already subscribed to TCGP, we hope you will now through iTunes or your favorite podcast service.
Co-host Lee Van Ham’s new book, From Egos to Eden: Our Heroic Journey to Keep Earth Livable, is now available online at Powells, Barnes and Nobles, and other stores in addition to Amazon. For a review of the book click on “Review.” REVIEW
You can also listen to him talk about the book on an earlier podcast, Episode 77 :: Lee Van Ham: Our Heroic Journey to Keep Earth Livable
OF RELATED INTEREST: Co-Host Jerry Iversen’s Simple Living Works! Website & Podcasts
On current Simple Living Works! Podcasts, On SLW! in Aug. I talk to Vicki Robin, co-author of the best-seller “Your Money Or Your Life.” An updated version is scheduled for release in March, 2018. Subscribe to my Simpler Living Daily Nudge to get quick reminders of Lee’s blogs, TCGP, SLW! Podcast and other intriguing happenings and events, such as “Non-Conform Freely” Celebrations, ways to honor rites of passage and holidays without consumerism/consumerism. [Send NUDGE to SimpleLivingWorks@yahoo.com.]
Simple Living Works! Blog and Podcast at SimpleLivingWorks.org
