wfn.org | ENGLISH BISHOP WRITES THEOLOGICAL WORK ON THE DEBT ISSUE

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TITLE:ENGLISH BISHOP WRITES THEOLOGICAL WORK ON THE DEBT ISSUE
May 13, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications
Anglican Communion Office
London, England

ACNS  [97.5.2.8]

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ENGLISH BISHOP WRITES THEOLOGICAL WORK ON THE DEBT ISSUE

(Nicola Currie, ACNS) The question of international debt has been
identified by all the regional pre-Lambeth 1998 meetings as a major
concern for the Anglican Communion. An Anglican bishop, who is currently
Professor in Applied Theology at Durham University, has just published a
book which provides a challenging theological critique of the issue.

Grace and Mortgage - The Language of Faith and the Debt of the World  
is written by  Bishop Elect of Worcester, the Rt Revd Professor Peter
Selby. The Primate of Southern Africa, the Most Revd Njongonkulu
Ndungane has written the book's foreward. The Archbishop writes:
"International debt is something that is stifling human freedom and has
disastrous consequences for our global family.  The debilitating reality
of nations trapped in the consequences of debt  creates, in my opinion, 
another form of slavery. Again, it seems, the poor are providing for the
rich.  Indeed the awesome burden of international debt causes, at the
most extreme level, a loss of dignity and hope."

The book provides a challenging study of debt and its consequences for
society today.  Bishop Peter Selby traces what happens to individuals,
nations and the world economy when the 'piggy bank' is thrown away and
people rely on credit  to buy what they want today.  The book shows how
relationships based on debt and credit affect everyone -  from a student
in Britain trying to pay back a loan,  to a family saddled with a
mortgage, to a Third World economy struggling to pay back international
loans. Linking personal debts and international debt Bishop Peter Selby
maintains that debt has an enslaving effect on people and nations.

Christians today must  regain a theological understanding of debt, says
the Bishop. "The subject of this book is not debt in and of itself, but
debt as a key term for understanding the person of Christ in our time."
He believes that people have to rediscover  the biblical metaphor of the
debt paid by Jesus and see its consequences for a renewed Christian
understanding of economics and a Christian lifestyle.

Although the New Testament speaks of humanity being in debt to God, and
of Jesus being in some sense a repayment of that debt by his death, the
language of debt today, says Bishop Peter Selby, has lost much of its
original power in religious circles.  He believes that  Christians have
made it possible to worship God and Mammon, by simply allowing ourselves
two separate kinds of language and not letting them interact in any way
that would confront our dependence on the economy of credit.The language
of Christian faith is often privatised away from the language of the
real world of debt and mortgage.   He calls for Christians to see Jesus
Christ for today as a way to freedom from the indebtedness of people's
emotional and material lives.

Throughout religious history there has been strict teaching on usury,
debt repayment and care for the poor which recognised the powerful link
between debt and relationships. Bishop Selby endorses the wisdom behind
this ancient teaching for the modern world. He maintains that the use of
money, of giving or taking credit and reclaiming debts by Christians are
spiritual issues because they determine how people relate to each other,
to God and to the world.

Grace and Mortgage - The Language of Faith and the Debt of the World  is
published by Darton, Longman and Todd (fax 0181 875 0133) and is
published on 19 May.