458 - What Does the Lord Require? How American Christians Think About Economic Justice

What Does the Lord Require?
How American Christians Think About Economic Justice
By Stephen Hart
New York/Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1992. 253 pp. $24.95.

Stephen Hart is a sociologist as well as a Christian "socialist feminist" and "pacifist," and he hopes that his findings in this book will advance the purposes of the political left. In fact, however, this book will be enlightening to anyone, of whatever political stripe, who shares the author's main purpose: understanding how and why Christians interpret the implications of their faith for economic justice and come to sometimes radically different ethical conclusions. This is a study in the sociology of Christian ethics and a valuable, groundbreaking one.

Hart's sociological method is reminiscent of Bellah and others in Habits of the Heart. The study is based on forty-seven in-depth interviews with several types of lay Christians. Recognizing the strengths and limits of this method, Hart compares his findings with the data of public opinion research and church surveys. In the process, he offers some strong criticisms of current methods and interpretations in the sociology of religion. He debunks some standard stereotypes, such as the alleged correlation between theological and economic conservatism. Indeed, he suggests some interesting reinterpretations of the relationship between Protestantism and capitalism. These features of the book will, no doubt, draw the attention of the sociologically inclined. But other features, notably the value analysis, should also attract theologically, ethically, and strategically focused readers.

Hart discovers five recurrent themes among Christians: voluntarism, universalism, love, this-worldliness, and otherworldliness. Each of these themes can be socially radical or conservative, integrative of faith and politics or dualistic, social "change-inhibiting" or "change-facilitating." These authentic strands of the Christian tradition, he argues, can legitimately pull in both directions. Different views on economic issues reflect different interpretations and emphases among the themes. Voluntarism, for example, connotes a direct relationship between individuals and God; it can be interpreted as demanding maximum economic freedom and moral privatism or as encouraging personal responsibilities for public concerns. Love, moreover, can be understood as applying individualistically or corporately, parochially or universally. It can be socially "demobilizing" if it is interpreted as

459 - What Does the Lord Require? How American Christians Think About Economic Justice

the avoidance of conflict or division. Similarly, while otherworldliness can promote passivity and withdrawal, it can also generate social hope and activism, prompted by transcendent values as a basis for social criticism. Hart summarizes his argument, "Both conservative and liberal views on economic issues are regularly and strongly grounded in faith; far from being irrelevant to these issues, faith serves both sides of public debate in significant ways.... Christian faith is ineradicably multi-implicational." At this point, however, Hart draws, as he often does elsewhere, a normative conclusion from descriptive premises. The fact that Christians draw contrary conclusions from certain norms does not imply that all the conclusions are warranted or that the norms themselves are valid interpretations of the faith. Making these determinations is the task of theology and ethics, not sociology.

The five themes also raise important questions. Are they sufficient and sound? Why is not justice itself one of the themes, as the data seem to suggest? Are themes that have such opposing interpretations really the same themes? Would this problem be overcome by the use of polarities, such as the individual/community, integration/compartmentalization, equality/hierarchy, this-worldly/otherworldly, universal/ parochial, and accommodation/purism poles-all of which Hart analyzes but not always in the context of his themes?

Hart's last chapter on the strategic implications of his findings for "left politics and the churches" was the least satisfying for me. Ironically, his main strategy corresponds with the typical proposals of the political and religious right. He urges the churches to deemphasize corporate social action and to stress the neutral study and discussion of " meta-issues"-that is, how Christian ethical norms apply in general, rather than in particular cases and on substantive issues. This strategy certainly eliminates the many risks of specificity, but it also abandons the political relevance of specificity and it reduces the church from a corporate body to an aggregation of individual actors.

Despite these flaws, however, this book offers a wealth of descriptive information and insights on how Christians apply their faith commitments to economics. Strategies for change by both teachers and advocates require a strong empirical base about the target audience. "What Does the Lord Require? supplies that base in some novel and surprising ways.

James A. Nash
Churches' Center for Theology and Public Policy
Washington, DC