Life Beyond Debt

Banking on Virtue

 

The budget cuts announced in Ireland show that the financial crisis is far from over. While the UK may not be in quite the same perilous situation, the recent spending review means we will all have to go on tightening our belts for a little longer.

Banking on Virtue, a new report from pastor and Senior Fellow at the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, Philip Davis, takes a broader look at the crisis - going beyond just asking about the cause and effect of the events in economic terms. The report looks in detail at the economic aspects of the crisis, but also combines this with biblical reflections to provide a more holistic picture of humankind. This means that as well as thinking about what caused the crisis, deeper questions can be asked of why the crisis occurred and where responsibility lies. 

Starting with a review of how the crisis unfolded, Banking on Virtue then considers the different views on humanity that economic theory and Christian theology take. There are some similarities: they both look at how things are, and how they should be. However, the biblical view offers a far fuller picture; community life is crucial rather than just individual fulfilment. And while wealth is celebrated at times as indicating God's blessing, it is the relationship with God that a Christian sees as central to well-being.

Looking at the financial sector, personal debt, and Government debt in turn an economic analysis is provided and then supplemented with theological reflections that illustrate this fuller picture of the crisis. It becomes clear that a variety of actors in the economy - bankers, the public, and the Government - acted in recent years in the pursuit of their own self interest.

Bankers put their livelihoods at risk by their self-interested actions. Households sometimes went to such extremes of indebtedness that they risked default, bankruptcy and repossession. And by doing so they fed the bankers' self-interest further. During this boom, the report contends that governments effectively misled the population about sustainable economic growth, giving the impression that risk had been abolished. In a striking conclusion report author Philip Davis argues that in the search for continued power governments encouraged bankers and households to believe that high levels of debt could be sustainable, and for many this led to catastrophe.

The biblical reflections in the report paint a picture of idolatry, whether this is of the banks as institutions, the Government as providers, or of money and wealth in general. This idolatry needs to be recognised, and the structural injustices and evils it generates, condemned. The report calls for the church to find a voice and fulfil an essential role in providing cultural transformation against a money fixated society, as well as standing ready to critique governments when they act contrary to truth or justice, and offering merciful support to casualties of the recession.

In outlining a biblical approach Banking on Virtue provides a critique of the overall aims of economics - wealth, consumption power - and contrasts it to Jesus' proclamation of the Kingdom of God, the law of love for God and neighbour and responsible stewardship.

·                            Read the full Banking on Virtue report

·                            Read the Banking on Virtue Summary and Recommendations

Banking on Virtue was produced for the Evangelical Alliance, however, the final content of the report, both theological and economic, remains the personal view and position of Philip Davis.

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