The Economy of Grace

Canterbury invites professors from the University's faculty to speak on various topics of interest to the group.  This week, we found ourselves in great company, as we were visited by Paul Jones of the Religious Studies Department.  Professor Jones has always been a Canterbury favorite and we love the discourses resulting from his visits.

Our topic this time was "The Economy of Grace," which comes from the title of a book written by Kathryn Tanner titled Economy of Grace.

The discussions which followed were ones focused on the some of the ethical problems modern Christians face in a world where capitalism rules.  Mr. Jones was able to get things flowing by introducing the theological ideas which stand behind the concept of Grace, in that the grace which mankind experiences stems from God and is eternal - never ceasing.  We talked about how God's grace affects one's life in the sense that God is always seeking to strengthen his relationships with his creation and how he also seeks to begin new relationships with those who are not already in a relationship with him.  One can go further and state that as Christians experiencing God's grace, one must also then disperse it to other human beings.  In this way we broaches the notion of human relationships to one another.  How can we as Christians relate to each other in a way in which we give of ourselves to the fullest, while simultaneously questioning when practicality must overrule ideality. 

It became clear that a notion of Grace should be important to us all, in that it may be used in all areas of life towards the attainment of a world where one is conscious of one's actions in relation to another human being.  Things to think about were how might one transfer the divine grace into economics, social questions, theological questions, political questions.  An example that we were presented with, was what might happen were one to cancel all third world debts with any reciprocation expected; how does Grace influence political and legal debate on issues such as capital punishment or determining environmental policy?  What are the ethical questions and reasonings which are attributed to altering the way in which these issues are approached.


A final point of interest would be the notion of distancing one's self from transactional thinking and simply deciding on something because it would be the ethically right thing to do, or would such a stance do more harm than good and vice versa.


A good place where one could begin to think about one's own responsibility to shown grace to others would be to think of (as Mr. Jones suggested) the rejection experienced by Jesus as he was under going cruxifiction.

Hope you all are enjoying the posts thus far and that they provoke thought!