Money and Wealth LO9184

Dick Wolff (dickwolff@patrol.i-way.co.uk)
Fri, 16 Aug 96 21:53:33 GMT

The gods - dimensions of the human psyche that have the power to evoke
worship - never died, we just drove them underground by calling them other
names (says Walter Wink, biblical theologian).

Mammon is one of the gods.

The gods were created to bring blessings, not curses.

Respect them, but do not succumb to worship of them (Walter Wink). If you
do that, the curses will follow. Mammon is a particularly spiteful god -
the curses tend to fall, not on those who worship it, but on innocent
victims (a fact that caused Hebrew writers no little perplexity).

The roots of Mammon in the human psyche :

a. we are *social* beings, and the societies and civilisations
we create depend on exchange and barter

b. we are an intelligent* species, in the sense that we can
see ahead, plan, save for a rainy day

c. we are an *acquisitive* species

BLESSINGS AND CURSES

blessing a. enables us to relate and deal with one another
smoothly, making community and friendship more
far-reaching and powerful.

curse a. amplifies and exaggerates differences and tensions.
Isolates people from one another's spirit by
turning community into a set of transactions

blessing b. Evens out fluctuations in cycles (we can eat
autumn fruits in the spring); protects us from
the worst effects of random misfortune and ill
health. Spreads risk, reduces people's
vulnerability.

curse b. Distances us from reality. We start to behave as
if we were immortal. We dominate the environment.
Mammon ends up creating the very instability it
was created to prevent.

blessing c. Enables us to specialize (you grow crops - I'll
build houses) - concentrates individual creativity
and amplifies the creative potential of a society
enormously through interdependence.

curse c. Concentrates power in the hands of those with more
marketable skills (who then control which skills
are marketable). Creates social divisions and
turns them septic, eventually destroying the
interdependence of community.

Etc. Others?

The key 'spiritual strategy' for breaking the chains of bondage Mammon
wraps us in - giving it away. (See Luke 14:28-33 and note the surprising
twist in the last verse which reveals the context)

--
Revd Dick Wolff
Mission Enabler to the Wessex Province of the United 
Reformed Church
Tel : +44 1865 511798
Fax : +44 1865 310769
e-mail : dickwolff@patrol.i-way.co.uk

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>