About Global Neighbors
How can people of faith meet the challenge of living morally and faithfully within an increasingly globalized society? Much of the debate about the global market economy is polarized between pro-market ideology and anti-globalization activism. Global Neighbors sidesteps that dichotomy, presenting instead a nuanced, constructive approach. Leading theologians, ethicists, economists, and church leaders here examine the Christian call to live morally, faithfully, and responsibly in today’s global marketplace.
Reviews
Superb. . . . The best Christian ethical thinking we have on complex global issues that affect all of us. Don’t miss it!
—Cornel West, Princeton University
Global Neighbors is essential for anyone who wishes to reflect thoughtfully as a Christian on the economic challenges we face today. Its authors insist that the Christian tradition of loving one’s neighbor obliges us to engage the full complexities of these challenges and to act in ways that show true regard for neighbors both near and far. This volume takes a big step toward an engaged social Christianity that goes beyond any dichotomy of liberalism vs. neo-orthodoxy.
—Elizabeth M. Bounds, Emory University
Hicks and Valeri gather a remarkably diverse group of wise voices on the contemporary global economy and its ethical and pragmatic challenges to North American Christians. Pastors, economists, and religious scholars all contribute their perspectives on the emergent and enduring realities of the global market; this multiplicity of perspectives by itself makes the book valuable. What makes it essential reading is how clear-eyed the analysis is without giving up hope in a better common human future. In a sea of scolds, screeds, and fear-mongering about the global economy, Global Neighbors provides a firm island upon which to engage in further thought and constructive action.
—James Hudnut-Beumler, Vanderbilt University
Global Neighbors offers a rich variety of resources for considering the challenges of poverty and environmental degradation on a global scale. The volume is enhanced by the differences and disagreements among authors sharing a Christian-informed concern to respect the dignity of humans and our increasingly shared environment.
—Harlan R. Beckley, Washington and Lee University
This volume emerged from a yearlong consultation among Reformed Christians committed to integrating a biblical commitment to justice with an economically realistic view of life. It aims “to help others reflect on moral participation in the market and to envision strategies that might transform market relationships” (xix).
The book has much to offer all Christians. Thomas Walker and Eric Gregory helpfully employ insights from the parable of the Good Samaritan (the backdrop for the whole volume), drawing on Jesus’ rejection of distance as an excuse for avoiding the suffering of others. Today’s concern is with the billions of vulnerable neighbors left on the side of the road by the rigors of market life. Kent Van Til, Rebecca Todd Peters, Jeff Van Duzer, and Janet Parker speak critically—and sensibly—to mainstream economic theory; H. examines the effects of the “celebrity activism” of Bono (something of an embarrassment to the churches, since Bono claims to take the parable of the last judgment more seriously than they do).
In a remarkable essay, Robert Austin and Lee Devin provide a hopeful but sobering chronicle of the transition from craftsmanship (in the production of armor in medieval England) to the mass production processes of Ford and Taylor, to postindustrial work today. Shirley Roels provides a realistic and sympathetic assessment of the moral difficulties facing manufacturers in a globalized world. Rebecca Blank provides her typically sharp analysis, here investigating the proper relation of government and market within the Christian tradition.
The editors and authors have creditably integrated these readings. The volume is a refreshing effort to ask how best to bring the market economy in closer alignment with Christian faith, avoiding the simplicities of a liberation-ist rejection of markets and a neocon-servative celebration of them. As the editors put it, “Christian faith requires individual, church-based, and political action” (xxv).
—Daniel Finn, St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minn. in Theological Studies
In a world in which U.S. jobs are outsourced to Mexico, India, or China so that low-wage workers can produce the same product for less, how should Christians respond to the injustices of economic globalization? In the Gospels, Jesus spoke of loving one’s neighbor as oneself, but the new global world places tremendous strains on that simple saying. The editors of this volume gather eleven essays that deal with such wide-ranging topics as the theological sources for enacting agape in the global economy, the singer Bono’s activism and global poverty, and a Christian perspective on the role of the government in a market economy.
— ForeWord
Who is my neighbor and what should I do about it when I find out? That is the question Global Neighbors addresses. Part of Eerdman’s Religion, Ethics, and Public Life series, the book explores the dilemmas and concerns of those seeking to live out their faith in a complex and interdependent global economy. It focuses on our moral obligations and ethical commitments to the poor, the oppressed, and the least living among us… For those on the Jericho road who want to stop looking the other way or stop taking the more comfortable detour, Global Neighbors can help in understanding the rationale and the practice of journeying together with our global neighbors.
—Ben Wohlgemut, Mennonite Bretheren Herald
