Photo by: Minnea
A column in the Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy responded to the S & P’s downgrading of US Credit rating with an article called “How Debt Has Defined Human History”.
Author, David Graeber, describes how ancient civilizations developed elaborate systems to manage credit and debt. He maintains that such systems depended on the insistence that there are values more important than money.
One factor, Graeber says, was the cult of personal honor which allowed merchants to do even international business with, in some cases, “a handshake and a glance at heaven”. According to the article this required merchants to have reputations not only for fulfilling their own promises to pay but also for knowing when to forgive the debts of those in trouble.
Graeber’s title intrigued me to the point of wondering how true it really is. How far can we go in saying that the story of debt defines human history? What I’m concluding is that the idea is bigger than the scope of the Wall Street article.
1. Creation— resulting in a debt of wonder and endless gratitude (Psalm 8:3-9)
2. The Fall—resulting in a debt no human could afford (Gen 2:17); (3:19)
3. The Gospel— declaring release from the worst kind of bankruptcy (Col 2:14)
4. The Re-creation of our inner world—in which we are urged to owe one another nothing but to love one another (Rom 13:8).
The article also gave me occasion to review what we can learn from the Law/Teaching in which God showed his concern for the poor by:
1. The seventh year Sabbath— not only to give the land rest, but to forgive the debts of those who could not pay–rather than those who could, but would not pay. (Lev 25:1-7); (Deut 15:1-14)
2. The Year of Jubilee— Every 50 (or 49) years not only to return sold land to its original family “owners/tenants of God” (Lev 25:8-54), but to keep those who prospered from accumulating excessive wealth at the increasing and multiplied expense of the poor.
So where does all of this lead us– just to an overwhelming sense of guilt for our failure to reflect the heart of God? Everything in me says, as true as that may be, shame or guilt can leave us where we are, as we are.
What we need to move forward is not just an overwhelming awareness of what we owe– but rather some sense of what we have been given… (Lev 25:38); (Deut 15:15) (1Cor 5:7).
What do you think? Is it possible that the only way to move ahead toward prosperity of the heart is to begin looking at human history (and our own) not just as being defined by what is owed– but by what has been given…?
(+43 rating, 44 votes)
Loading...