Jubilee Centre - Readers' Comments

Free sex: Who pays?

Rather than addressing fundamental moral issues around sexual freedom, this paper starts with our culture’s premise by taking a utilitarian approach and exploring the financial impacts. This is in line with the common assumption that what truly matters for public policy can be quantified. It argues that significant costs of sexual freedom are imposed on society as a whole, rather than borne solely by the individuals most directly involved. This represents an enormous moral hazard and, as a result, unsustainable and unjust public expenditure. The paper then explores ways to address this, the most compelling of which is the Bible’s emphasis on rootedness and group responsibility.

Guy Brandon Posted: 17 January 2012 5 comments

Keywords: Sex & Families,

Uniformity or mutuality? The new equality law in Christian perspective

The Equality Act 2010 was the last major piece of legislation to be passed under the British ‘New Labour’ Government. This paper explains briefly what equality law does as well as two groups of related problem cases. It sets out a biblical foundation for equality as well as a distinctive conception characterised more by mutuality than uniformity. Against this background, the paper argues that we need to combat an equality culture which trivialises religious and ethical disagreement, to reform the law to protect the pluralism of civil society and accommodate individuals, and to rediscover the real issue of equality, which is material, relational and spiritual poverty.

Julian Rivers Posted: 29 September 2011 1 comment

Keywords: Crime & Justice, Government & Foreign Affairs,

Outside the frame: Postmodern art

This paper focuses on the scope and characteristics of recent conceptual and installation art, looking first at the early development of this genre, and then examining four major aspects: the exploration of visual language and appropriation of images; art based on autobiography; work which deals with social and environmental issues; and finally art which appropriates religious imagery. The paper concludes with reflections on finding a Christian voice in response.

Anne Roberts Posted: 1 July 2011 3 comments

Keywords: Worldviews & Culture,

The Great Financial Crisis: A biblical diagnosis

The self-destructive tendency of a debt-based financial system is being retaught with a vengeance by the current financial crisis. To diagnose our current plight, this paper expounds the biblical teaching on debt, interest, and finance; explains what is really going on from a relational perspective; and draws applications for the Christian, the church, and society.

Paul Mills Posted: 24 March 2011 13 comments

Keywords: Christianity & Religion, Finance & the Economy,

Covert Power: Unmasking the world of witchcraft

Is witchcraft real? What do witches think they are doing when they engage in witchcraft? Why does the Bible have so much to say about witchcraft, and how does it apply to the typical Western materialist who doesn’t believe in witchcraft anyway? Witchcraft is often present in society because it expresses something deep-seated in our broken humanity, namely, our desire to carve out a space where we can make things happen apart from God. The seriousness of witchcraft tends to be overlooked both in materialist societies, such as the UK, that pretend spiritual activity doesn’t exist and in societies that actively collude with supernatural powers, such as South Africa. The Bible presents a challenge to both sorts of worldview because it recognises there is a spiritual world – but one which is subject to Jesus Christ’s authority. Also available in French.

Jonathan Burnside Posted: 20 December 2010 9 comments

Keywords: Christianity & Religion,

Eschatology and Politics: the last things we want to talk about?

Christians fail to do justice to ‘politics’ when they seek to withdraw from the political arena or to use political power to dominate society. Similarly, Christians misunderstand ‘eschatology’ when they obsessively focus on debates about end-times chronology and when they effectively ignore it altogether. In each case, the purpose of biblical eschatology – critique, hope and a re-ordering of everyday priorities and relationships – and hence the political implications of God’s coming and present kingdom, are neglected. A broader understanding of politics and eschatology contends that everything we do is significant in the sight of God and in the light of the future.

Geoffrey Penn Posted: 30 September 2010 5 comments

Keywords: Christianity & Religion, Government & Foreign Affairs,

Euthanasia and assisted suicide

The arguments in favour of the legalisation of assisted suicide and euthanasia are no longer focussed on unbearable suffering. Instead there is a rising demand for choice and control over the time and manner of our death, coupled with fears about the social and economic consequences of increasing numbers of elderly and dependent individuals. But there are strong medical, legal, social and theological reasons to oppose this new drive for suicide and euthanasia. The potent modern myth of the autonomous individual fails to match with the inescapable reality of human dependence and relationality. The increasing public support for the legalisation of medical killing provides an urgent challenge to the medical and legal professions and to the Christian community as a whole. Are Christians capable of living out a practical and countercultural demonstration of the preciousness of human life expressed in human interdependence, personal commitment and burden-sharing?

John Wyatt Posted: 28 June 2010 4 comments

Keywords: Health,

Beyond Capitalism: Towards a Relational economy

Western societies face economic decline and political instability due in significant part to the five moral flaws of Capitalism and their severe social consequences. A radical new economic vision is urgently needed. This paper proposes a way forward through five strategies: embed relational values, strengthen household balance sheets, empower extended families, engage capital providers and entrust welfare to local communities. These changes are mutually reinforcing because they all reform economic life so as to strengthen personal bonds in the local and wider communities. They point towards the Christian vision of a ‘Relational economy’.

Michael Schluter Posted: 26 March 2010 6 comments

Keywords: Finance & the Economy,

'To Release the Oppressed': Reclaiming a biblical theology of liberation

Liberation is one of the great slogans of modern politics and one of the major themes of the Bible. The Exodus from Egyptian bondage was the foundational narrative of the Jewish nation, and Jesus inaugurated his ministry by announcing that he had come ‘to release the oppressed’. Scripture teaches that Christ brings redemption from slavery to sin, but it also depicts deliverance from material forms of oppression. This paper explains how that biblical theme has inspired early modern revolutionaries and nineteenth-century abolitionists as well as modern liberation theologians. While highlighting the failings of Christian liberationists (old and new), the paper concludes that we need a holistic theology of liberation which addresses the diverse forms of spiritual, relational and material enslavement that are rife in the twenty-first century.

John Coffey Posted: 18 December 2009 5 comments

Keywords: Christianity & Religion,

Is Capitalism Morally Bankrupt? Five moral flaws and their social consequences

Many Christians accept Capitalism as broadly in line with biblical teaching. Its economic success appears to vindicate attribution of its origins to Christian theology. This confidence in Capitalism as the best available economic system has meant that Christians have failed to recognise that it is one of the main drivers of social and moral breakdown in Western societies. This paper will highlight five failings in the philosophical foundations and institutions of Corporate Capitalism, pointing to their devastating impact on families and communities, and how they bring about the growth of giant corporations and centralised state power. Christians need to search urgently for a new economic order based on biblical revelation. One such alternative will be set out in a future issue of Cambridge Papers.

Michael Schluter Posted: 25 September 2009 5 comments

Keywords: Finance & the Economy,

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