[1]If property is a relation among persons with respect to
things, as Morris Cohen says,[1] possession in the
human realm is a relation among persons and things commonly called
having. The distinction is as important as their
connections. Both notions and their relations are explored in
this welcome collection of essays coming out of a collaborative
project of scholars from diverse backgrounds and interests who
wrote and discussed their papers together.
[2]Welcome, I say, because
seldom do property and possession receive sustained treatment in a
religious and theological context despite their obvious importance
in our individual and social lives. In a contemporary world
where chronic poverty and hunger engulf billions of people while
many others live in relative comfort-if not always economic
security-and the global economy has become a growing reality,
serious attention to these matters by religious scholars is
needed. It was, in fact, partly with an eye to these
realities that these scholars did their work.
[3]The editors describe the
project as a whole as "a material hermeneutics of culture." (5)
The focus is on "the interaction between cultural meanings
and values and the universe of things that demarcate the arena of
property and possession in a tradition or society." This
focus involves exploring "cultural artifacts, practices, and
processes." (5)
The essays are grouped in three parts:
[4] Part One, "Biblical
Trajectories and Theological Meanings," includes significant
biblical studies on property and possession in Scripture in light
of the commandments (Patrick D. Miller), in the Pentateuch (Andreas
Schuele), and in the connection of property and possession to
sexual shame in Ben Sira (Claudia Camp). A fourth essay by
Margaret Mitchell examines John Chrysostom's arguments against
wealth and possessions. And Michael Welker engages in
contemporary theological reflection on the modern subjectivist
notion of "having faith," which he traces to the locus
classicus in Kierkegaard's Cartesian move to characterize
faith in Sickness unto Death. Welker is highly
critical of the subjectivist understanding of faith, which he says
collapses into self-reference, fails to promote knowledge of God or
truth, suppresses the joy and ennoblement of the faithful, and
withdraws from religious expressive religious life, among other
things. (131) He goes on to consider conditions for the
recovery of a more adequate theological understanding of
faith.
[5]Part Two, "Having and Using
the Body and Material Meanings," presents studies of "The Body and
Projects of Self-possession" (Jean Bethke Elshtain), of Catholic
social thought on consumption and material sufficiency (Christine
Firer Hinze), of the notion of "using the world" (Charles
Matthewes), and of the notion of "material grace" (David
Klemm). Each is thought-provoking. Elshtain
perceptively explores contemporary implications of the use of
notions similar to Locke's problematic conception of the individual
having property in his or her own person for taking advantage of
our growing capacities for biological and genetic
enhancement. Hinze not only reminds us of the economic
ethical thought of Father John A. Ryan, but also gives us a model
study of how to use the lenses through which he saw economic
reality to address contemporary issues of economic
sufficiency. Matthewes critiques notions of "enjoying the
world" as creating excessive expectations that burden the world,
and argues that an Augustinian understanding of using the world is
more appropriate and more sustainable for the world. Klemm
argues for a theological conception of property as material grace,
rather than as commodity, gift, or understanding.
[6]Part Three, "Property and
Possession: Greed and Grace in the Social, Cultural, and Religious
Imagination," gives us studies of greed (William Schweiker), a
critical analysis of competition for attention in the media
(Günter Thomas), of the Israeli "yearning" for Jerusalem
(David Gunn), of the importance of the bourgeois virtue of prudence
in the economy (Dierdre McClosky), of the moral economy of
ownership (Arjo Klamer), and of the "economy of grace" drawing upon
themes from Reformed theology (Kathryn Tanner).
[7]This survey gives a glimpse
of the richness of this hermeneutical approach, but it also
suggests the difficulty of maintaining focus. In opening up
this broad approach with its multiple cultural and theological
perspectives, it is unclear what all we really do learn about
property and possession. How much of what the editors saw as
the promise of this approach is actually realized? What
lessons do we learn? What, actually, do we gain that will
help address the urgent dilemmas of the world situation they kept
in view? What is suggested by these essays for future
work? One wishes that the editors had ventured some kind of
concluding essay to assess the effort and suggest directions for
the future. On the other hand, that they did not do so only
opens an invitation to scholars and readers to let these essays
engage their imaginations and follow in thought and action where
imagination may lead. Having opened up this hermeneutical
territory, one hopes they and others will continue to explore
it.
[8]Another approach that would help readers and scholars in any
project such as this would be something that reflects the
discussion and debate among the participants, or which gives the
authors a chance to assess the issues-both substantive and
methodological-raised by the project. The occasional
reference in some of the essays to the work of other scholars in
the project only makes the reader more curious about what went on
in the writing process. One example of such an approach is
Roger Willer's "Threads from a Conversation," which summarized the
key issues and points of agreement and disagreement from a recent
interdisciplinary ELCA consultation on human cloning.[2] Another example
is the table talk on Lutheran ethics from a collaborative effort of
scholars to reflect on the contemporary scene either with or about
the themes of Lutheran ethics.[3]
[9]We began this review with the
observation that notions of property and possession are both
distinguished and related. One of the problems with this
collection is the recurring tendency to confuse property with
possession, although not all the writers do so. A careful
reading of the essays suggests however, that the theme of
possession is somewhat more prominent than the theme of property in
the collection as a whole. That is fitting because not
everything we may possess is property in any strict sense.
Appropriately, we are treated to more than one excursion into
virtue theories of ethics to address the proper relation of persons
and things. The metaphorical sense of "property" is also in
evidence from time to time. That is also appropriate in a
hermeneutical project such as this in which part of the intent is
to address cultural meanings and
values.
[10]One feature of significant
value to the reader is a helpful and rich basic bibliography about
some of the major areas addressed in the essays with a commentary
by Jonathan Gangle. One will inevitably quibble with what
gets left out of such bibliographies, but choices always have to be
made. (For me, the most serious omission is Locke's First
Treatise of Government, which these days deserves to be
read-by biblical interpreters among others-along with the
Second Treatise, given the body of Locke scholarship in
recent decades.)
[11]This is a rich, imaginative,
and significant group of essays. I encourage those interested
in these themes to read and ponder it whatever their field of
interest. I hope that it stimulates additional work on these
themes. I applaud the editors and the other writers for their
vision and their bold attempt, even if their success may be hard to
gauge.
[1]
Morris R. Cohen, "Property and Sovereignty," in his
Law and the Social Order, (New York:
Harcourt, Brace, 1933), 45.
[2]
Roger A. Willer, "Threads from a Conversation," Human
Cloning: Papers From a Church Consultation, Willer, ed.,
(Chicago: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 2001) 83-86.
[3]
"A Table Talk on Lutheran Ethics," (edited by Karen Bloomquist),
The Promise of Lutheran Ethics, Karen L. Bloomquist and
John R. Stumme, eds., (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998) 151-175.