This is an excerpt from a longer essay titled “Security Concerns: Considering and Cultivating a Living Ethos” which will be included in a collection of Economic Theologies essays that the Dismantling Coalition plans to publish soon. If you are interested in submitting a piece of writing for this collection, please email Coalition Organizer Doe Hoyer at doe@dismantlediscovery.org.
The Sense of Security
Security is a multidimensional phenomenon that pertains to various spheres of our lives. Managing and maintaining it is a continuous challenge in the face of constantly changing circumstances. It is a hard thing to nail down in any lasting way. Security could be thought of as an absence of anxiety. It can also be experienced in belonging to community. Or in the sense of being recognized and affirmed for one’s inherent value, and for the gifts one has been endowed with. It relates to matters of physical health and sustenance as well. These are just some of the areas in which security is sought and experienced. A large proportion of our concerns around security are also economically based.
Yet unconditional and everlasting security is an unattainable ideal, even at the economic level. Mortality is 100% and physical frailty is inherent to our human condition. Common misperceptions and assumptions around the acquisition of security can lead to an obsessive pursuit of it. As ideal states of permanent security fail to materialize, we may be driven to pursue this in ways that are counterproductive to both personal and environmental well-being.
Theologian Sally McFague reminds us that “We don’t own this house (the planet); we don’t even rent it. It is loaned to us “free” for our lifetime with the proviso that we (abide by certain rules) so that it can continue to feed, shelter, nurture, and delight others.”1 Her ecological statement reminds us both of our transience, and our responsibility to the natural world.
Indigenous activist Sarah Augustine, confronts our quest for security with this question: “Is our short-term “security” enough to deceive us into thinking we can somehow make ourselves safe in a world whose life-support systems are failing?”2 Augustine speaks of this as a ‘lust for security’, a diagnosis that is sadly prevalent in affluent societies. People living in poorer societies are deprived of even subsistence levels of security as a consequence.
Personal Security on the Global Stage
For many of us, matters of security that touch upon our core values may be in tension with the values that drive economic systems. At a practical level, security becomes elusive as these systems threaten the health of our ecosystems. Whereas pre-modern civilizations “established equilibrium, modern Western civilization has been ‘programmed solely towards development, growth, expansion and conquest’.”3 And of course, consumption. To use Biblical terminology, ‘covetousness’, as an expression of self-interest, has become one of the primary drivers of our economy.4
Sallie McFague points out that, “Global warming is unmasking the presumed ‘objectivity’ of market capitalism, for we see now that this model of economics is biased not in favor of the well-being of the whole planet, but in favor of a segment of the human population for its short-term gratification.”5 Her statement highlights the interrelatedness of ecological depletion and economic injustice. As participants in these systems, our own experience of interrelatedness has devolved into a function of economic exchange. 6 This is hardly the basis for cohesive communities, or the security such communities provide.
Beyond pragmatic concerns of well-being and survival, matters of conscience bear directly on the sense of security we experience. As individuals, most of us participate in global systems that provide the comforts of modern life, but also cause significant suffering for many. Economic injustice and environmental degradation intersects with our daily lives in the practices, policies, and assumptions that inform how we live. Theologian Michael Barram confronts us with this biblical reading of economic matters: “To remain neutral in the face of injustice is ultimately to side with the oppressor.”8 In his view, it is the consequence of a “radically inadequate theological anthropology, in which we fail to value human beings according to their intrinsic worth as those created in the image of God.”9
There is limited upside to singling ourselves out as culprits in a global plan that we did not ourselves set in motion. That can lead to a paralyzing downward spiral and is at cross purposes with what is being asked of us. After all, we are trying to heal the world for ourselves, and for those who follow. Leadership consultant Margaret Wheatley proposes an altogether different response to the unfolding crises that surround us. In her understanding, the individual has been swept up in global and historical forces that are beyond their power to redirect. Her focus is instead on the cultivation of meaningful ways of living in the face of current, challenging realities. Wheatley emphasizes the need to ground ourselves in spiritual resources that can nurture our innate capacities for goodwill, and then expressing this through meaningful action – in our interactions with others. As Fr. Gregory Boyle, the founder of ‘Homeboy Industries’ reminds us, we belong to one another. We stand on the same ground of being, the collective body of a single shared planet.
Toward a Spirituality of Security
“It is never too late to do what is right and holy.” – Bishop and Native American leader, Steven Charleston
The process of transforming capitalism into an economic system that affords viable social safety nets, and accounts for the wellbeing of the natural world, is an imperative we all have a stake in. The buzzword used by ideologues who oppose such initiatives is ’socialism’. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of these commentators consider themselves to be followers of Jesus. Michael Barram suggests that “It is unlikely that Jesus himself would have believed in the God imagined by many contemporary Christians.”10 Jesus’ teachings are consistently aimed at transforming “our moral imaginations so that we will reason economically from the perspective of abundance and gratitude as opposed to scarcity and fear.”11
According to ecological theologian Thomas Berry, a process of spiritual revitalization is necessary for the re-envisioning of economic society. He recognized that our experience of the world today “has scientific precision, but no numinous meaning.”12 Informed as he was by Indigenous ecological wisdom, he reminds us that “the planet Earth is a one time project”; “the human community and the natural world will go into the future as a single sacred community, or not at all.” “The great work of our times” Berry thought, “is moving the human community from its present situation as a destructive presence on the planet to a benign or mutually enhancing presence. It’s that simple.”13
Theologian Karl Rahner famously stated that contemplative religion would be needed to sustain the vitality of the human spirit in coming times. His statement is a prophetic one, in referring to a reality that calls us to reconceptualize our priorities and values. Rahner recognized the necessity of attending to our deepest psychic and spiritual needs. Otherwise, he thought, these needs would continue to impose themselves on the world in destructive ways.
Part of what informs a living ethos – the spirit of an individual or community as manifested in beliefs and aspirations, and as expressed in actions – are the security concerns we experience and face in daily life: Can we shift our understanding and pursuit of such concerns, so they align with the values we see as core and definitive of our personal identity?
Markus Hoffman: My spiritual ground is in the Theravada Buddhist tradition and the path of meditation this entails. Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker, described our society as “The dirty rotten system” which suggests how far we are from building “The Kingdom of God”. My participation in social justice programs with JustFaith Ministries and related work is a response to this reality. JustFaith is an organization that is dedicated to inspiring people to work toward the Kingdom, or the Beloved Community as MLK referred to it. Their programs call upon participants to engage in this work with love, courage and greater awareness around the issues each course considers. In my own small way I hope to participate in the social justice dimension of the faith Christ taught.
Footnotes
1 Sallie McFague, Sallie McFague: Collected Readings, ed. David B. Lott (Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2013).
2 Sarah Augustine, The Land Is Not Empty (Harrisonburg, Virginia: Herald Press, 2021).
3 Francis Ching-Wah Yip, Capitalism as Religion? A Study of Paul Tillich’s Interpretation of Modernity (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2010).
4 Michael Barram, Missional Economics (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmanns Publishing Co., 2018).
5 McFague, Sallie McFague: Collected Readings.
6 Ching-Wah Yip, Capitalism as Religion? A Study of Paul Tillich’s Interpretation of Modernity.
7 Augustine, The Land Is Not Empty.
8 Barram, Missional Economics.
9 Barram.
10 Barram, Missional Economics.
11 Barram.
12 Mary Evelyn Tucker and Grim, John, Thomas Berry: Selected Writings on the Earth Community (Ossining, New York: Orbis Books, 2014).
13 Tucker and Grim, John.
