Should Christians care for the poor?
With Jeremy Corbyn likely to be elected equally the next Labour leader, there is a good hazard that nosotros will all be faced with a much clearer choice at the next election. For Christians, this will enhance more acutely the question of how important care for the poor is in their voting decisions. (Whatever else you do, please don't try and quote the parable of the sheep and goats; that has nothing to practise with care for the poor.)
1 of the strange ironies of mod Western life is the way—by blow rather than by blueprint—aspects of our life appear to be moving closer to the ancient earth than previously. With the collapse of the dominance of Christendom morality, attitudes to sex and sexuality appear to be converging (or reverting?) to aboriginal views, and the same is true in aspect of economics. The distribution of wealth in developed countries at present almost exactly matches that of the Roman Empire, with a small socio-economic elite decision-making an enormous share of the wealth and ability. And as in ancient Rome, access to that wealth and power depends on being a member of an elite clan—being built-in into wealth, attending the best places of education, and developing networks of relationships which requite further admission to wealth and power. Amidst the range of developed economies, complimentary market economies generally have the everyman levels of social mobility compared with social democratic economies..
Information technology is therefore highly instructive to understand a piddling more nearly the ancient earth, and how information technology was that the early Christian movement was transformed—during its period of fastest growth and development in any period of history, in any civilization—from being a small-scale and marginal motion to becoming a major social force in the Empire.
Final year, Andrew Wallace-Hadrill presented a short series of programmes on 'The Other Pompeii: Life and Death in Herculaneum' based on findings from recent excavations at that place. He painted a picture of a very sophisticated lifestyle, in which the inhabitants had just well-nigh every amenity that we might imagine. Food was plentiful; the urban center had a plumbing and drainage system that would have put parts of Victorian England to shame; at that place was time for leisure activities. At a fabric level, people appeared to have just nigh whatsoever they wanted. Then what was the appeal of this nascent Christian movement in such a context?
Role of the answer comes from some other classical study. Larry Hurtado, best known for his work on the early veneration of Jesus, recently posted about some older inquiry on poverty and charity.
Speaking for myself, I'm often finding valuable scholarly work on various matters pertaining to the world in which early Christianity emerged, such as this volume: A. R. Hands,Charities and Social Aid in Greece and Rome (London: Thames & Hudson, 1968). Information technology'south a well-researched and balanced give-and-take of ancient attitudes and practices toward the "less fortunate" in society, which provides a valuable context in which to view attitudes and practices reflected in the early Christian texts.
Here are some representative observations by Hands:
- "In the vast bulk of texts and documents relating to gifts in the classical world, it is quite clear that the giver'south action is self-regarding, in the sense that he anticipates from the recipient of his souvenir some sort of render." (26)
- In records of the fourth dimension, ". . . the motive which is constantly ascribed to the donor by the recipient–and, indeed, asserted by the donor himself–isphilotimia orphilodoxia (dearest of honor or celebrity). . ." (43).
- ". . . the classical preoccupation withphilotimia left piddling room for any mention of pity–or of 'the poor' as peculiarly deserving of such pity." (61)
- Although there are laudable expressions of the notion that the wealthy should requite more generally (and examples of thishumanitas), "It is . . . among a comparatively few rare spirits, even within the cultured Latin-speaking form of the Empire, that this distinctive humanity is, if anywhere, to be sought." (88)
- The more than common pattern of public provision past the wealthy was to directly the gifts to town councillors and others of standing in the town, or to give larger shares/portions to such people: ". . . discrimination by factors of three or five is quite normal." (91)
- Hands as well touches on child-exposure, noting that the do seems to have been peculiarly focused on disposing of unwanted female person children. Families were often express to one child, or peradventure two sons, but "more than one daughter was very rare." (69-seventy). Easily notes, all the same, that Jewish families (and and so Christians as well) were known as not practicing child-exposure, at to the lowest degree every bit a group. (Annotation, e.k., the reference in Acts 21:9 to Philip who is ascribed there four daughters.)
- In light of the current financial crisis over Hellenic republic, one other statement caught my heart, which I promise it is not too mischievous to repeat here: "The Greeks, in particular, were notorious, non least in the eyes of fellow Greeks, for their unreliability in handling money." (19)
Information technology is worth reading this alongside studies such every bit Bruce Longenecker'sRemember the Poor. The book every bit a whole is the fruit of many years' study of this subject field by Longenecker, a New Testament specialist, and some of the chapters are adapted from articles that have been previously published. Just the book as a whole puts together a compelling argument that Paul has a clear commitment to the care of the poor as an integral part of his teaching, and that this was a hallmark of the Jesus-groups which he founded, taught, led and wrote to.
All this won't on its ain determine how nosotros vote—but it must surely be a pregnant factor. I suspect most Christians will object to a culture of benefits dependency, if only on the basis of Paul's terse injunction 'Ya don't work—ya don't eat!' (2 Thess 3.10, more than or less). We might recognise that some people's misfortune is the result of their ain fecklessness. But we might have strong objections to a system that is then unforgiving for those at the 'bottom', and much less then for those at the top. And nosotros might even take a stand against a arrangement which curbs government spending by cutting income primarily for the least well off, accelerating an already rapidly growing divide between rich and poor.
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