Abstract
Just Capitalism is a troubling read from the get-go because, as the title suggests, Brent Waters mounts a theological defense of capitalism and proposes to justify the current neoliberal thrust of economic globalization. Waters argues, “Over time … competition has benefitted civil society by providing cheaper goods and services, creating new jobs, and generating unprecedented wealth and affluence, which in turn have helped to lift over a billion people out of abject poverty” (47). One of the main problems for Christian moral theology is its failure to keep pace with globalization and that Christian social witness beginning from the premises that the affluence of the powerful comes at the expense of the weak is “simplistic and thereby misleading” (19).
Waters presents biblical and historical themes intended to disrupt the growing consensus among Christian theologians, ethicists, and other religious leaders that neoliberalism is antithetical to Christian social teachings. He suggests that the “appeal to the prophetic denunciation of wealth largely ignores prominent countervailing themes throughout the Old Testament. Work, for example is highly valued; indeed the world itself is seen as a work of God, and commerce, so long as it is conducted honestly, is praised as a means of providing material blessings. Laziness ‘makes a man poor,’ while diligence ‘brings wealth,’ as the ‘blessing of the Lord’” (29). Moreover, the primary object for prophetic outcry and denunciation in the Hebrew Bible was not in opposition to wealth per se, but to the unjust taxation imposed by imperial regimes. He urges Christian theologians and religious leaders to consider the context of the ancient world economy in contrast to the present day and advocates for an ecclesiology of adaptability focusing on the present moment and not pining “for where they might prefer to be” (73).
There are three flaws in Waters’s argument that readers cannot ignore. Most significantly, Waters fails to address or incorporate data related to the widening of the wealth gap over the last forty years or any perspectives of people living in poverty. Any study that considers affluence a moral virtue cannot simply ignore the growing body of research conducted by organizations such as the Economic Policy Institute that shows the dramatic ways in which neoliberalism accelerates the wealth divide and arguably causes poverty. Moreover, poverty cannot be understood in the abstract. Waters writes, “most poor people in affluent societies do not suffer from malnutrition or such debilitating diseases as malaria and vitamin A deficiencies, and they live in homes with plumbing, electricity, household appliances, telephones, and televisions” (100). Stories and testimony of people living in poverty and data gathered by organizations such as the National Coalition for the Homeless as well as the United Nations Human Rights 2018 Report provide contrasting evidence. For example, the UNHR found that 18.5 million people live in extreme poverty in the USA today.
Additionally, Waters presents the benefits of economic globalization as a single story as he provides a theological justification for affluence. If affluence ultimately lifts people out of poverty, then Waters suggests it is also a form of loving one’s neighbor. This type of neighbor love also requires using natural resources to meet material needs. While Waters affirms that there are physical limits and moral considerations regarding the use of natural resources, curtailing the use of resources such as fossil fuels in an effort to combat climate change is problematic because “promoting more widespread affluence may be effectively rendered inoperative” (216). In presenting a single-story narrative of economic globalization, Waters shows little or no awareness of a larger variety of theories of wealth creation and economics that provide viable alternatives to the current neoliberal approach. For example, Waters does not mention ecological economics, which incorporates the planetary boundaries within its cost–benefit analysis. He also questions the accuracy of long-term scientific forecasting regarding climate change and suggests, “affluence may be the best way to go green” (215).
Finally, Waters’s ecclesiology is relativist and disregards the grounding of Christian theology in the prophetic biblical tradition. Waters defines the churches’ role primarily as a “communicative association” working within and among other forms of human associations such as the state and markets to promote human flourishing. Characteristics of this association include reciprocity, cutting across and negating divisions defined by class, nation-state, and political parties, and universality. Ultimately, those who serve the church are to be inspired by a theology of the cross that “teaches, among other things, that we must deal with the thing as it is and not as we might prefer it to be” (220). Waters’s ecclesiology and theology of the cross come perilously close to that which informed alliances built between evangelicals and corporations and led to the creation of “marketplace missions” like Chik-fil-A (see Darren Grem, The Blessings of Business (Oxford, 2016), 149–61). Marketplace missions have played a role in advocating for particular “family” values often supporting heteronormative and predominately white communities as well as other businesses that advocate against labor organizations.
One wonders after finishing this book if the author sees any major differences between the current dominant approach to wealth creation and Christianity. Just Capitalism offers some insight into the views and privilege of the affluent, but lacks sufficient understanding of the vulnerability and precariousness of people living in poverty and the sense of urgency to address the problem.