Comments for Nourish Blog'zine

Comment on when my husband knows what’s best/ following jesus is hard by Troy

Troy — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:48:06 +0000

Thanks for writing Tish.

Comment on Theology begins with Tea by when my husband knows what’s best/ following jesus is hard « Nourish Blog’zine

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:32:46 +0000

[...] blog before, but since many of you who read this (and aren’t just looking for pictures of tea) actually know me, I thought I’d give a snapshot of my week and the current skirmish in the [...]

Comment on Jesus for President update and where I’ve been by Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:47:58 +0000

It is difficult to know what to do as Christians living in a putatively Republican state with regard to voting. As Allister McGrath writes, “The assumption of the foundational documents of the Christian church is that Christianity is excluded from the establishment, and thus insulated from the temptations and corruption that power brings in its wake” (The Twilight of Atheism, p. 276). So it does seem that Christianity presupposes a downward mobility, albeit one that can still have a place for political activity, “damage control” as Shane calls it. I, for one, will still vote for Obama, even though I can’t possibly agree with him in every instance.

Comment on Sound Bite: John Kavanaugh by Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:18:12 +0000

I also have to say that I get a tiny twinge of nationalistic pride when I think that Arizmendiarrieta and I have a common ancestry. Los bascos se venceran! Wish I could speak Basque.

Comment on Sound Bite: John Kavanaugh by Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:15:46 +0000

This is not quite on point to this talk back, since strictly speaking it’s about prayer, but I thought I might add that Bill Cavanaugh is, in my estimation, the most profound theological ethicist living right now. I love this from Being Consumed: “In order to judge whether or not an exchange is free, one must know whether or not the will is moved toward a good end. This requires some kind of substantive–not merely formal–acount of the true end, or telos of the human person. Where there are no objectively desirable ends, and the individual is told to choose his or her ends, then choice itself becomes the only thing that is inherently good….And yet, Augustine says, desire for objects that are cut free from their source and their end in God is ultimately the desire for nothing…A person buys something–anything–trying to fill the hole that is the empty shrine. And once the shopper purchases the thing, it turns into a nothing, and she has to head back to the mall to continue the search. With no objective ends to guide the search, her search is literally endless” (pp. 13-15).
The elaboration of this account of positive freedom oriented by proper ends leads Cavanaugh to compare the maquiladora industries in Mexico and L.A., where laborers can be hired for 30-33 cents/hr., and workers for the Mondragon corporation, based in the Basque country, which was founded by Catholic priest Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta on the principles of distributism. Although the laborers for both corporations would technically be considered free according to free market economists (i.e. when freedom is defined as the absence of external coercion), when a positive account of freedom is introduced, “it becomes obvious that the Salvadoran woman is little better than enslaved and that the Mondragon worker is afforded the opportunity for true freedom” (pp. 27-28).

This account of positive and negative freedom is an important part of Cavanaugh’s overall thesis (which it seems he learned while studying under Stanley Hauerwas at Duke) that Christians must narrate acts, persons, and institutions differently than the world–and that this is precisely the Christian “political” contribution. It is not that the existence of the Mondragon corporation or fair trade coffee cannot be incorporated within the “grand narrative” of capitalism, for it surely can, but that Christians who participate in these enterprises will narrate them according to Christian grammar, which changes the terms of the debate and is ultimately subversive to unjust practices. This is because it ultimately conduces to greater human flourishing to narrate the existence of fair trade coffee or the Mondragon Corporation not as a “niche market” for do-gooders under the umbrella of tenctacular, all-pervasive capitalism, but as the inbreaking of the kingdom of God, which orients our patterns of consumption toward our ultimate beatitude–fellowship with God in the company of others.

Comment on Sound Bite: John Kavanaugh by THW

THW — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:05:41 +0000

No relation besides both being catholic c/k avanaughs who are brilliant social ethicists, theologians, and professors at small, catholic liberal arts schools. I bet they know each other. C is a lay theologian and K is a priest. I’m reading Being Consumed right now also. I think it is amazing so far.
-t

Comment on Sound Bite: John Kavanaugh by Nathan

Nathan — Fri, 16 May 2008 13:18:12 +0000

Now, he can’t be related to William Cavanaugh, author of (most recently) Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire, can he? Good stuff from K; I’m about to get into C’s Theopolitical Imagination.

Comment on Happy 75th Birthday Catholic Worker! by Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:12:15 +0000

Let’s name our daughter (should we have one) after her.

Comment on Smallness is a big deal. And so is Michael Pollan. by Jonathan

Jonathan — Fri, 02 May 2008 03:27:09 +0000

I love this article and have sent it to all my friends. I’m contemplating sending it to my parents.

Comment on Learning from an Urban Farmer by Smallness is a big deal. And so is Michael Pollan. « Nourish Blog’zine

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:54:42 +0000

[...] Thanks to the urban farmer for sending me this [...]