The relationship with money, and with the economy in general, has influenced Christianity since its inception.
in the manger of Bethlehem, with the gifts of the shepherds and wise men, with the expulsion of the merchants from the temple, with the birth of the first Christian communities, convents, with shipments crusades, indulgences, and finally gradually until to arrive today.
From this short list is already understand how, over 2000 years, this relationship between money Christianity has changed and sometimes in favor of early Christianity and others where mammon, the desire for wealth, had the upper hand on solidarity.
What, however, in 2000 years is not ever deal with an economy capable of devouring an entire planet to create sound pollution and global inequalities. Unlike when it was colonized Latin America, the Church is no longer able to influence society as when evangelize the Indians alongside the violence of the conquistadors.
The challenges facing now are different and need to overcome the efforts of the entire society, not just more then the simple interest of the community Catholic: the poverty lie in the outskirts of cities, in small businesses that fail, in the favelas of the world, Indian farmers who have to struggle against the multinationals, which deprive them of water and cultivate genetically modified products, in African villages exhausted by wars and the west, which builds power subtracting irrigation dams.
long as our mind is darkened by the black oil, we will certainly not change this state of affairs that threatens to smother the entire planet with its billions of inhabitants. Would probably not be a new comet to let us know which road should be taken in order to leave of this impasse, it will be the science of the Magi and the simplicity of the shepherds that we will rediscover the pleasure of giving instead of producing at the expense of others.
in the manger of Bethlehem, with the gifts of the shepherds and wise men, with the expulsion of the merchants from the temple, with the birth of the first Christian communities, convents, with shipments crusades, indulgences, and finally gradually until to arrive today.
From this short list is already understand how, over 2000 years, this relationship between money Christianity has changed and sometimes in favor of early Christianity and others where mammon, the desire for wealth, had the upper hand on solidarity.
What, however, in 2000 years is not ever deal with an economy capable of devouring an entire planet to create sound pollution and global inequalities. Unlike when it was colonized Latin America, the Church is no longer able to influence society as when evangelize the Indians alongside the violence of the conquistadors.
The challenges facing now are different and need to overcome the efforts of the entire society, not just more then the simple interest of the community Catholic: the poverty lie in the outskirts of cities, in small businesses that fail, in the favelas of the world, Indian farmers who have to struggle against the multinationals, which deprive them of water and cultivate genetically modified products, in African villages exhausted by wars and the west, which builds power subtracting irrigation dams.
long as our mind is darkened by the black oil, we will certainly not change this state of affairs that threatens to smother the entire planet with its billions of inhabitants. Would probably not be a new comet to let us know which road should be taken in order to leave of this impasse, it will be the science of the Magi and the simplicity of the shepherds that we will rediscover the pleasure of giving instead of producing at the expense of others.
Alberto Spatola