Money and Power

Rich or poor, we all face the problem of money. But is money chiefly a personal problem of how we manage our resources or a societal problem of how we organize the economy? Jacques Ellul exposes the folly of a purely societal approach -- whether communism, collectivism, socialism, or capitalism -- and argues for individual responsibility. Money, he says, is not neutral, somthing we can use as we like. Instead it is a powerful agent that sets itself against God's kingdom. Tracing the scriptural attitudes toward wealth from Old Testament sacramentalism through New Testament renunciation, he challenges Christians to live by the law of grace and not by the law of the marketplace.