Theology Today - Vol 47, No. 3 - October 1990 - BOOK REVIEW - The Bible, The Church, and the Poor & Faith and Wealth: A History of Early Christian Ideas on the Origin, Significance, and Use of Money

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The Bible, The Church, and the Poor
By Clodovis Boff and George V Pixley
Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 1989. 266. $14.95.

Faith and Wealth: A History of Early Christian Ideas on the Origin, Significance, and Use of Money
By Justo L. Gonzalez
San Francisco, Harper and Row, 1990. 240. $19.95.

Both these books try to show the essential connection between faith and the use of possessions. Each explicitly adopts the perspective of liberation theology, which means that the topic of the poor and the use of possessions is considered to stand at the center of theological discourse not at its periphery. Each offers a welcome subtlety and discrimination in its discussion, inviting readers who are not already committed "liberationists" to take it more seriously as an authentic articulation of essential Christianity. In fact, each book tries to show how the concern for the poor and for the economic order has been at the heart of the Christian message, not only from the beginning (that is well-trodden ground) but also through its long history.

The liberation framework is most obvious in Doff's book, and most intrusive in his Introduction, where he argues that the situation of the poor in today's world is unique: poverty is collective, it is the result of a conflictive process, and it demands an alternative historical process, The same standard liberation approach characterizes as well the "Bible" part of his threefold argument. In fairly predictable fashion, he runs through the favorite Old and New Testament texts, concluding that the overall message of the Bible is God's "preferential option for the poor," which demands of believers a corresponding "solidarity with the poor."

Far more unusual and attractive are the remaining two parts. In "the Theological Aspect," Boff develops a genuine theology of the church as the sacrament of and for the poor. Two points are particularly welcome. First, Boff argues persuasively that the presence of the poor are required for the church to realize its catholicity. Second, he evenhandedly discusses the ways in which "material poverty" and "spiritual poverty"

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can be positive as well as negative realities. This chapter represents, in my view, a decisive step past "ideology" into "theology."

The same equanimity characterizes the final section, "The Pastoral Aspect." Rather than simply condemn the church's past blindness toward the poor, Boff shows the ways in which there was an option for the poor through much of the church's history. The present liberation emphasis is, therefore, seen less as an innovation than as a reclaiming of the authentic Christian tradition. His remarks on the distinctive demands put to the church today build on this historical base. Boff is concerned to show the multiple ways in which solidarity with the poor can be expressed in practical action. And although he emphasizes how all such action in today's world is somehow "political," he unequivocally eschews violence as one of its acceptable dimensions.

In contrast to Boff, who attempts a full theological argument, Gonzalez engages in a close historical examination of Christian traditions concerning wealth and poverty from the beginning until the fifth century. The title to this book is a bit misleading: yes, this is definitely a "history of ideas;" Gonzalez' basic approach is to take one writer after the other and examine his "teaching" on the topic. But the topic is not really (as the title suggests) "the origin, significance, and use of money." That summary is too definite and narrow. Gonzalez' real subject is the way Christian thinkers tried over a period of half a millennium to articulate for their own changed circumstances the perennial ideal of koinonia, the sharing of spiritual and material possessions.

Recognizing that this is a topic that cannot be separated from the real world of culture and economics, and that the Christian thinkers not only used the symbols of their milieu but also lived within its structures, Gonzalez appropriately devotes almost a third of his work to "Background," considering in turn the "Wisdom of the Ancients" on the proper use of possessions, and then, even more fully, "the Roman Economy" through its successive permutations from the start of Empire through Constantine.

After a rapid survey of the New Testament evidence, Gonzalez moves through all of the pertinent texts that he can garner from "the Subapostolic Church," and "the Old Catholic Church." The most rewarding part of the book begins with Gonzalez' detailed analysis of the transition for the social life of the church represented by Constantine. He begins with the preparation for the shift in a figure like Lactantius, and then shows the deeply ambiguous state of "the Church under the New Order." In the remainder of the book, he shows how great bishops, like the Cappadocians, Ambrose, Chrysostom, and Augustine, responded in diverse ways and motivations to these new circumstances, each trying in his fashion to articulate the connections between spiritual and material koinonia.

A work of such scope leaves itself open to a variety of complaints concerning points of omission or emphasis. One could cavil, for example, about the adequacy of the "background" discussion (especially the

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treatment of the Greek and Jewish material), or about the proportion of attention given to Acts 2 and 4 (is the point, after all, the historical fact or the role the text played in shaping later perceptions of Christian identity?).

But there are also virtues here that should be recognized. First, Gonzalez is fair in his reading. I was especially pleased by his sensitive use of The Pedagogue to give a fuller appreciation of Clement of Alexandria's teaching. Second, he brings together an impressive selection of texts, making this a valuable resource for students of theology and church history. Third, he is surely correct in trying to align "ideas" with social realities; at the least, he demonstrates how one must read authors as responding to quite different situations. Finally, he convincingly shows how "faith and the use of possessions" was a constant and central preoccupation of the patristic writers.

These books deserve attention both for their contents and for the way in which they show a "liberation" sensibility entering the mainstream of theological and historical discourse.

Luke T. Johnson
Indiana University
Bloomington, Indiana