Love and Money

A local Catholic parish is using a popular evangelical money management program. The program's author is also a radio personality, so I have heard his financial philosophy in my car many times. From a practical perspective the program makes sense as a way to attack the plague of credit debt, but it disturbs me that it is described as "biblically-based." This description certainly attracts the many churches that subscribe to the program, but is it biblical enough for a Catholic parish?

I do not think so. From what I have heard, the program cites, as divine justification, texts from the OT that one would not find in official Catholic socio-economic theological reflection. Catholic theology does not start from the book of Proverbs, for example.

The Catholic principle "agapéic love is the telos of human relationships" signifies the biblical starting point. Agapéic love reflects the the Greek term agapé, used in the NT for God's love for the world, Jesus' self-giving love that he exemplified and enjoined to his disciples: "agapé one another as I have agapéd you." Agapéic love is the starting point because Jesus said that it was: in answer to the question what is the first thing, the most important (prōté in Mk 12:28) value, Jesus replied "love God" and "love neighbor." From Jesus' explicit teaching comes the principle "agapéic love is the telos of human relationships." It means, whenever human beings interact -- even in the bedroom -- agapéic love must be the goal of that relationship. Finance is a human relationship, therefore ....

Agapéic love is the only biblical basis of personal finance. Basis means foundation, root assumption, or starting point. Other biblical texts and principles must be subordinate to the explicit teaching of our Lord. To subordinate means to place beneath in importance, so no biblical financial philosophy can subordinate agapéic love to lesser values, even if these values appear in scripture.

Jesus himself rejected the subordination of higher values to lower values: when asked about divorce, his response indicated that the value of marriage as expressed in the creation story -- the two can become one flesh -- is a higher value than Moses' later allowance for divorce (Dt 24:1).

There is much more to explore here, but this is enough for now. [6.5.08]