Ok, so what about greatness of soul and greatness of stuff? Is there a connection or relationship?
Yes. I’m just not sure what it is.
But personally I think money gets a bad rap in evangelical culture. On the one hand, you have the prosperity preachers, and the TV evangelist types who believe (or at least say) that you send them money and you more of it. Obeying God as they have defined Him results in more and better stuff.
On the other hand, there are the guys like Tony Campolo and Jim Wallis who seem to think that it is money, and not the love of money, at the root of all evil. These are the poverty preachers. OK, they don’t actually say money is bad. But they are convinced it keeps us from seeing injustice.
Well, it can. But does it have to? Is there some sanity between these extremes?
John Schneider, in his book The Good of Affluence: Seeking God in a Culture of Wealth argues that there is a biblical precedent for the responsible ownership of wealth. At least that’s what it says on the back cover.
I haven’t read it yet. But I intend to. And I may pick up a copy of church historian Justo Gonzalez’s Faith and Wealth: A History of Early Christian Ideas on the Origin, Significance, and Use of Money.
Nothing like a little context in the search for greatness of soul. Or stuff either, for that matter.
See you at the book store.
the daysman 