Paul Mills on a Debt Jubilee

The latest Cambridge Paper from the Jubilee Centre is available online here (from where a pdf can be downloaded here), this one by Paul Mills:

Paul Mills, ‘After the Virus: Is it Time for a Debt ‘Jubilee’?’, Cambridge Papers 30, 1 (March 2021).

Here is the summary:

‘The concept of a societal cancellation of debt has an ancient heritage that includes the seven-year cycle of debt elimination found in biblical law. Given the virus-induced economic slump of 2020-21, the idea of substantive debt relief is being revived as a way to alleviate financial burdens on stressed households, companies and governments. The benefits of these proposals need to be weighed against the costs and injustices of changing the “rules of the financial game” retrospectively. But without a principled stance against the bondage of debt finance itself, such relief would only act as a temporary fix. The true lesson from Deuteronomy is that debt should remain short-term, with a “clean slate” within everyone’s grasp, thereby embodying gospel hope within the financial system.’

The Bible in Transmission (Autumn/Winter 2019) on Debt

The latest issue of The Bible in Transmission, from Bible Society, is available online here, offering a collection of articles on the issue of debt.

I have taken the summaries of articles below from Nathan Mladin’s Editorial.

Nathan Mladin

Editorial

Luke Bretherton

A Christian Ethic of Debt

Luke Bretherton... opens the issue with a brief and convincing plea for a richer and more nuanced understanding of the notion of debt. The language of debt, he shows, is pervasive across time as a means of expressing our personal and communal obligations: to God, to one other [sic], to society and to creation. At its best, debt can express social cooperation and mutually advantageous exchanges. At its worst, debt can be used as a means of bondage, exploitation and domination. Luke’s article ends with a clarion call for the Church to proclaim and embody the gospel story of the God who comes to liberate people from debt slavery and to lavish credit on those the powers-that-be deem to be high risk.

Eve Poole

Debt and Deformation [currently no working link to this article]

Eve Poole... helpfully introduces the idea of creation orders to explain how debt extends beyond the economic sphere. We are all born, she shows, into a form of debt, to our families, to society, and to creation. Eve also highlights the importance of institutions, which she describes as systems of rules. Where the rules are just, society runs smoothly. Where they are broken, they lead to injustice and harm. Student debt is then discussed as an illuminating example of a ‘rule’ that is doing more harm than good – effectively turning students from citizens into consumers, further extending the reach of the market into society.

Barbara Ridpath

Forgive Us Our Debts

Barbara Ridpath... looks at the most common form of debt: personal or household debt. She explains the reasons why people generally borrow, the warning signs of difficulties, the effects of unpayable debt, while also suggesting how practically to help the overindebted. A fruitful question is woven through the piece: what would a more just and loving approach to extending and repaying credit look like? To begin answering this question, Barbara distils the key arguments of the Forgive us our Debts report and offers the Christian ethical framework we put forward.

Hannah Rich

The Church’s Response to Debt

Hannah Rich... offers an insightful discussion of the Church’s response to debt problems. This has been mainly, but not exclusively in the form of debt advice, in partnership with Christians Against Poverty, but also through independent initiatives. Hannah shows how churches are uniquely placed to offer support that is deeply relational and holistic. Churches, she notes, generally address not only people’s economic burden of debt but also their relational and spiritual needs. Their support is inclusive, holistic, and joined up, integrated with other forms of provision. As an institutional voice, Hannah shows, the church has significant capacity to challenge unjust structures. The most notable initiative on this front has been what the media called the ‘War on Wonga’, the campaign led by the Archbishop of Canterbury against doorstep and payday lenders charging interest rates and fees of up to 5000 per cent. But there is, as she rightly points out in the conclusion of her piece, plenty of scope for the church ‘to go further in challenging unjust economic structures and create genuine alternatives’.

Philip Booth and Stephen Nakrosis

Government Debt, Inter-Generational Justice and Catholic Social Teaching

Philip Booth... and Stephen Nakrosis...approach the topic of government debt through the frameworks of Catholic Social Teaching, natural law, and virtue ethics. As with other forms of debt, government debt, they show, is not always and unquestionably problematic. It should be assessed on the reasons why it is incurred (e.g. spending while not taxing properly vs borrowing to invest in infrastructure) and its effects on, among other things, the relationship between generations, and between government and the governed, according to the principles of intergenerational justice and solidarity. They note, however, that any increase in the size and scope of government must be financed through adequate taxation of the current generation.

Paul Mills

Government Debt and the Enslavement of Future Generations

Paul Mills applies explicitly biblical wisdom on debt and stewardship to how Christians should think about government borrowing today. Paul acknowledges that there is no biblical material which speaks directly to the question of government debt, but offers scriptural principles focused on the ‘relational dynamics at work between borrower and lender, and between current and future generations’ which are still applicable to the issue of government debt today. The article ends with a set of suggestions to reduce and make government borrowing more transparent and responsible. In the end, however, beyond anything that policies informed by Christian wisdom may achieve, there is an urgent need, he argues, for ‘a change of societal heart’, away from selfishness towards self-giving. And it is in this context that Christians, shaped by the gospel, have a significant opportunity to embody a spirit of generosity and sacrifice.

Theos Report on Debt

The latest report from Theos has just been published:

Nathan Mladin and Barbara Ridpath, “Forgive Us Our Debts”: Lending and Borrowing as if Relationships Matter (London: Theos, 2019).

Here are some paragraphs from the Theos website:

‘Over 16 million people in the UK have less than £100 in savings. Personal debt is now at 90% of GDP. Debt is clearly a serious economic issue – but it is also a profoundly moral one. How should we distribute the risks and responsibilities inherent in debt? How should we treat people with severe debt problems? Should there be limits on borrowing and rates of interest?

‘This report draws on the wealth of Christian thought on the subject to highlight the moral and relational dimensions of debt and suggest practical ways to address some of its problematic aspects at the personal, corporate, and public levels in the UK today.’

A pdf of the full report is available here.

Paul Mills on the Looming Government Debt Crisis

The latest Cambridge Paper from the Jubilee Centre is available online, this one by Paul Mills:

Paul Mills, ‘Prodigal Stewards: The looming government debt crisis and what to do about it’, Cambridge Papers 23, 4 (December 2014).

Here is the summary:

‘During the recent financial crisis, governments borrowed as if they were fighting a world war. They have struggled to reduce deficits ever since and so their debts are at record levels, leaving societies open to the temptations of repression, default, or inflation. This is the poisonous legacy of the ‘Prodigal’ baby boomer generation that squandered not only their inheritance but that of their children too. Biblical wisdom helps us to understand the state we are in and the possible means of escape. But societies ultimately need a change of heart to understand that debt is financial servitude and we all have obligations before God to future generations.’

The Centre for Social Justice on the First Year of the Coalition

The Centre for Social Justice has published a ‘report card’ for the first year of the Coalition Government – Building a Social Recovery? A First Year Report Card on the Coalition Government.

Gavin Poole, CSJ Executive Director, writes:

‘Our report card reveals that the Government’s first year of action has been mixed. Pioneering progress in pursuing welfare reform and an encouraging new direction for drug and alcohol policy have been undermined by poor implementation of bold education plans, and compromise-driven inaction in tackling our devastating culture of family breakdown... Ministers have made a promising start in key areas, but other important commitments risk proving nothing more than rhetoric. If the Coalition is serious about building a social recovery alongside an economic one, there is much more to be done next year.’

They score the Government on the five key areas identified as pathways to poverty: family breakdown, economic dependency, serious personal debt, drug and alcohol addiction, and educational failure.

Here are the marks they award:

Family breakdown – 2/10

Economic dependency – 8/10

Educational failure – 6/10

Addiction – 7/10

Serious personal debt – 6/10

Interpretation 65, 2 (April 2011) on Usury

The latest issue of Interpretation is devoted to the topic of usury, with the following main articles:

Mark E. Biddle

The Biblical Prohibition Against Usury

A full consideration of social and economic justice would involve economics, sociology, political science, and legal theory, in addition to questions related to biblical hermeneutics and biblical ethics. This article addresses what must be the fundamental question for any Christian approach: what does the Bible say?

M. Douglas Meeks

The Peril of Usury in the Christian Tradition

Through the sixteenth century, the Christian tradition upheld the biblical denunciation of usury as the oppression of the poor and the neighbor. The church should critically retrieve this understanding as a contribution to the public discourse about the oppressive use of interest and debt in the current worldwide fiscal crises.

Mark Valeri

The Christianization of Usury in Early Modern Europe

The beginnings of Europe’s commercial revolution forced reconsiderations of the use of credit in long-distance trade. Protestant moralists in the early seventeenth century developed rationalizations for usury as a concerted effort to protect the Protestant regimes’ interest in the context of imperial warfare and colonial settlement. By the end of the seventeenth century, these moralists had made modern, market-oriented conceptions of usury commonplace in the Christian West.

Rebecca Todd Peters

Examining the Economic Crisis as a Crisis of Values

This article focuses on the ways in which the problem of predatory lending, or usury, allows us to examine our most basic Christian values and principles and think about how they might serve as a moral foundation for reshaping our economic structures and transactions.

David Brat

God and Advanced Mammon

This article looks at the economic and theological intersections of definitions of usury in the economic system of capitalism. It challenges seminarians and the church to examine their roles in addressing the problem of usury.

Life Beyond Debt

Yesterday I attended the Life Beyond Debt conference organised by the Evangelical Alliance, sponsored by Kingdom Bank, in partnership with Stewardship and the Salvation Army.

The day brought together a number of Christian agencies along with some church leaders who are active in helping people face debt issues, with the aim of encouraging what is already being done as well as challenging churches to do more.

The initiative is supported by the Government, and Hazel Blears, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government also spoke at the conference, recognising the good and necessary work carried out by faith groups, but making it clear that public money would be for public use and not for faith groups to ‘proselytise’ others. (See report here.)

A public statement was released during the day, which is available on the campaign’s website (which will run until November 2009), where further information and resources are available.