The Tensions Between Christianity, Capitalism, and Liberal Democracy: Part 3, A Critical and Prophetic Relationship

Today we wrap up this series by looking at the tensions that exist between Christianity and capitalism:

Again, I claim no originality in the points I'm about to make. These are observations that have been made by many people over many generations. The contribution of this series is introducing the "axes of tension" triangle to highlight and disentangle issues in political theology, especially in America. The big obvious point the triangle makes is that Christianity, capitalism and liberal democracy don't easily co-exist. There are tensions along all three sides of the triangle that have to be attended to and redressed. 

That there are tensions between capitalism and Christianity is an easy point to make.

To start, there are the cogent and persuasive arguments that varieties of socialism, in providing a greater social safety net for the most vulnerable within a nation, better embody the Christian values of care and love than does capitalism and free market neoliberalism. (That socialism can embody Christian values is going to be an absolute shocker to many evangelical readers. But this is a banal observation. Just have a chat with Christians from the UK and Europe. Regardless, that we can weigh both socialism and capitalism on the balance of Christian values to discuss their relative merits illustrates the point I'm making.) Further, even within capitalistic economies, there are perennial calls in the name of Christ to redress, with policies and programs, the failures of capitalism to provide economic security for vulnerable populations. 

Further, Christianity has stood in a critical and prophetic posture in relation capitalism for generations. Some representative examples:

First, from Catholicism there are the social teachings of the Catholic church. Also coming from Catholicism is liberation theology and its "preferential option for the poor." There are Catholic witnesses and movements like Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement. There are the encyclicals of Pope Francis.

Within evangelicalism, there is the "road not taken" generation seen in the work of Jim Wallis, Ron Sider, and Tony Campolo's "Red Letter Christians."

There was, and is a still lingering, New Monastic movement associated with people like Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove.

And finally, there are all the criticisms of capitalism from Christians inspired by the work of a diverse collection thinkers who have been critical of capitalism, from Wendell Berry to Jacques Ellul.

Again, this is just a selective list to make the obvious point: Christianity and capitalism do not comfortably coexist. Christianity has a critical and and prophetic relationship with capitalism.