This essay suggests that changes in economic practices which we associate with capitalism brought about deep changes in understandings of culture, and especially of Christianity; that, given that capitalism is driving global warming, changes in the way in which we structure the economy, which for many of us have religious roots, will have to be adopted if we are going to survive; that six priorities for an alternative economy may be identified.

This book is also concerned with world economics, but it is approached from the viewpoint of ethics. It argues that the hubris of the present global market is destroying communities and wreaking irrevocable damage to the planet: we live in a modern version of the Midas myth.Justice in its broadest sense -- fair shares for all -- is eloquently held up as the prime virtue of human communities. Timothy Gorringe, Professor of Systematic Theology at the University of Exeter, offers practical (...) suggestions for an ethical transformation to replace the spiraling profit-driven economy with a steady-state economy that meets human needs and encompasses the well-being of other species and the environment. (shrink)

The concern to learn and profit from the past experience of exile and restoration and to implement the command “Be holy as I am holy” underlies both the dialogue of Job and later Pharisaic theology; to reflect on one is to clarify the other.

The paper argues, first, that the range of problems confronting humanity constitutes a global emergency; next, that this cannot be addressed by moral exhortation but by the building of ‘arks’; finally, that community, cultivation of the virtues, and place may be considered key aspects of such ark building.