Working on this new server in php7...
imc indymedia

Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

white themeblack themered themetheme help
About Us Contact Us Calendar Publish RSS
Features
• latest news
• best of news
• syndication
• commentary


KILLRADIO

VozMob

ABCF LA

A-Infos Radio

Indymedia On Air

Dope-X-Resistance-LA List

LAAMN List




IMC Network:

Original Cities

www.indymedia.org africa: ambazonia canarias estrecho / madiaq kenya nigeria south africa canada: hamilton london, ontario maritimes montreal ontario ottawa quebec thunder bay vancouver victoria windsor winnipeg east asia: burma jakarta japan korea manila qc europe: abruzzo alacant andorra antwerpen armenia athens austria barcelona belarus belgium belgrade bristol brussels bulgaria calabria croatia cyprus emilia-romagna estrecho / madiaq euskal herria galiza germany grenoble hungary ireland istanbul italy la plana liege liguria lille linksunten lombardia london madrid malta marseille nantes napoli netherlands nice northern england norway oost-vlaanderen paris/ÃŽle-de-france patras piemonte poland portugal roma romania russia saint-petersburg scotland sverige switzerland thessaloniki torun toscana toulouse ukraine united kingdom valencia latin america: argentina bolivia chiapas chile chile sur cmi brasil colombia ecuador mexico peru puerto rico qollasuyu rosario santiago tijuana uruguay valparaiso venezuela venezuela oceania: adelaide aotearoa brisbane burma darwin jakarta manila melbourne perth qc sydney south asia: india mumbai united states: arizona arkansas asheville atlanta austin baltimore big muddy binghamton boston buffalo charlottesville chicago cleveland colorado columbus dc hawaii houston hudson mohawk kansas city la madison maine miami michigan milwaukee minneapolis/st. paul new hampshire new jersey new mexico new orleans north carolina north texas nyc oklahoma philadelphia pittsburgh portland richmond rochester rogue valley saint louis san diego san francisco san francisco bay area santa barbara santa cruz, ca sarasota seattle tampa bay tennessee urbana-champaign vermont western mass worcester west asia: armenia beirut israel palestine process: fbi/legal updates mailing lists process & imc docs tech volunteer projects: print radio satellite tv video regions: oceania united states topics: biotech

Surviving Cities

www.indymedia.org africa: canada: quebec east asia: japan europe: athens barcelona belgium bristol brussels cyprus germany grenoble ireland istanbul lille linksunten nantes netherlands norway portugal united kingdom latin america: argentina cmi brasil rosario oceania: aotearoa united states: austin big muddy binghamton boston chicago columbus la michigan nyc portland rochester saint louis san diego san francisco bay area santa cruz, ca tennessee urbana-champaign worcester west asia: palestine process: fbi/legal updates process & imc docs projects: radio satellite tv
printable version - js reader version - view hidden posts - tags and related articles

No Room for Grace: Book Review

by Beat Dietschy Monday, Dec. 12, 2005 at 10:37 PM
mbatko@lycos.com

If abundance of life for all people is the heart of the biblical vision, economic thinking focuses on the shortage of resources.. Not subjecting everything to the market-benefit-calculus is vital.

NO ROOM FOR GRACE

World Economy and The Christian Faith

[This book review of: Annette Dietschy and Beat Dietschy (ed): Kein Raum fur Gnade? World Economy and Christian Faith – Impulses from Four Continents, Munster 2002 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, http://www.ref-sg.ch/oekumene-mission/publikationen/index.php.]


A “new thinking” sets the standards today in all areas of life. This thinking is marked by market logic, profitability and cost-benefit principles. Everything that does not follow the calculation of cost-minimization and profit-maximization is defined as an obstacle that must be removed. Human rights and ecological standards are stylized as hindrances. What does this reconstruction of the worldview and anthropology mean for the churches? Do they see the “hardening of hearts” propagated in global competition as a prerequisite for economic and emotional survival? Do we have to spell out our faith again in view of these developments? How do we proclaim the message of “free grace” (Pierre Buhler) so it has a liberating effect? Annett and Beat Dietschy discussed these questions in a 2001 course for Zurich pastors. The contributions of the seminar are now available as a book.

The individual articles illumine different aspects of the theme from various perspectives. First of all, the cult word “globalization” is probed. Why has this term spread since the 1990s? How is it used politically? Is it only a trivializing slogan that whitewashes the contradictions of today’s world society? Or is it a discursive strategy to devalue past solutions? The introductory article by Beat Dietschy grapples with these questions.

Globalization processes produce new forms of social inequality and dependence. These forms are superimposed as Choon-Ho You-Martin showed in the example of South Korea. Structures of social and economic exclusion exist with ethnically and religio-culturally conditioned factors and a hierarchy of genders. Women in South Korea bear on their shoulders the double burden of patriarchally defined modernization and globalization processes. They are “Minjung among the Minjung” and also the impulses for a paradigm change to a human-, community- and life-centered development.

If in a country of the “semi-periphery” like Korea, processes of industrialization and world market integration run very different than in the countries of the West, what should be the way of an East African country like Tanzania? The burdens of the past of the colonial plantation economy, Rogate Mshana says, cannot be overcome in the framework of a neo-colonial or neo-liberal model: “It is an error to believe that deregulating market forces has already brought an economic improvement for everyone.” To that end, an economic model defined by the population of the country themselves is needed, according to the Tanzanian economist and also “structural adjustment processes” in the North enabling the North to pay off its ecological debts to the South and no longer live beyond the means of the planet.

Are other social-political orientations possible given the practical necessities of a free enterprise self-dynamic? How can they be established? In his article, Peter Ulrich discusses these questions and subjects the blind faith in global market forces to criticism from the perspective of an “integrative economic ethic.” This starts from the insight that normative decisions were already made in the seemingly value-neutral economic logic. An ethical examination in the light of paramount criteria of the good life and just cooperation of all people is necessary. The St. Gallen economic ethicist counters the neoliberal policy of a boundless market deregulation and intensified competition with a “policy of limiting practical necessity.” His policy consists in making possible real citizen freedom (not reduced to market freedom) on the national plane and a globalization policy on the supra-national plane oriented in criteria of usefulness to life and human rights-, democracy-, social- and environmental standards.

If abundance of life for all people is at the heart of the biblical vision, economic thinking focuses on the shortage of resources. There is no conflict of disciplines here between theology and economy. There is a conflict, as Franz Hinkelammert shows in his article, between public interest and individual calculation, attitudes that are contradictory and yet imply one another. As a result, a solution is not possible that denies one of the two poles. However he sees a great problem in totalizing the benefit calculus in the boundless market: “the possible abundance is destroyed and the benefit calculus – a shortage calculus – transforms shortage into disaster.” The upshot of the critical economic theoretician is: not subjecting everything to the market-benefit-calculus is vital for people and contemporaries.


Report this post as:
Share on: Twitter, Facebook, Google+

add your comments


© 2000-2018 Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Running sf-active v0.9.4 Disclaimer | Privacy