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Given our life & ministry as an intentional community in the heart of the inner city of Winnipeg, we have been deeply moved by the examples and writing of many in the new monasticism community. One practitioner/writer who has most deeply challenged and encouraged me has been Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, author of several books, most notably for me “New Monasticism”. His website gives the follow brief bio:
- Jonathan is an Associate Minister at the historically black St. Johns Baptist Church, and is engaged in peacemaking and reconciliation efforts in Durham, North Carolina. The Rutba House, where Jonathan lives with his wife Leah, their son JaiMichael, and other friends, is a new monastic community that prays, eats, and lives together, welcoming neighbors and the homeless. Jonathan directs the School for Conversion, an alternative seminary that hosts courses around the country. He is Editor of the New Monastic Library Series (Cascade Books) and Associate Editor of the Resources for Reconciliation Series (InterVarsity Press).
Jonathan’s newest book, “God’s Economy: Redefining the Health & Wealth Gospel” (Zondervan), is a timely and important challenge to a church culture that has too often compromised to the seemingly overwhelming trend of materialism, individualism and greed. The publisher describes the book as follows: “This practical guide to the good life details how to enjoy a rich, satisfying lifestyle, no matter how much or how little money you have. Rather than being at the mercy of unpredictable market factors, you’ll learn how to thrive in God’s economy of abundance as you tap into a wealth of community and generosity.”
Here is my interview with Jonathan on “God’s Economy”.
Jamie Arpin-Ricci: While this book is important for all time, do you think it is particularly important given current economic issues?
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove: Yes. Jesus teaches us to slip God’s Economy into this world through the cracks in whatever economy there is. Right now, everyone can see the cracks in our economy. I think the global financial crisis has opened our eyes to the fact that wealth doesn’t deliver on all that it promises—even if we work hard and invest wisely, we’re not as secure as we think we are. It’s the same sense many of us had after 9/11. These moments are pregnant with potential for us to hear the gospel in a new way, I think. The fundamental question Jesus asks is, “Who are you going to serve? God or Money?” It’s really the bedrock question of faith—whom do we trust to define why and how we live?
JAR: Was there any topic(s) that you wish you could have included in the book that didn’t make it?
JWH: I’m fascinated by the many ways people all around the world take Jesus at his word and begin to live God’s Economy where they are. My window on all of this is one little community in Durham, North Carolina, and the good people I’ve had a chance to come in contact with over the years. But God’s Economy is much bigger than that, and many of the people who live it most faithfully are underrepresented in this book because I haven’t had the privilege of knowing them and their stories. My hope is that in telling the stories I do know and paying attention to Jesus’ tactics for abundant life, this book can foster spaces for others to share how God’s Economy is springing up in the church.
JAR: What was the most difficult section of the book for you to write and why?
JWH: I wrote and re-wrote chapter three on Jesus’ tactical imagination. For most of us in the West, it’s hard to put ourselves in the place of the peasants living in occupied Palestine whom Jesus taught and organized. But the whole book really hangs on this—the claim that all those strange things Jesus said about money begin to make sense when we see that he was teaching us how to live when we can’t drive the Romans out. A lot of people feel caught between the ideal they know Jesus exemplifies and the reality of life where they are in this world’s economy. We know there’s a tension between the two, but we also know that we’re not going to displace global capitalism tomorrow. The good news according to Jesus is that we don’t have to. We’re invited to begin living God’s Economy now, wherever we are, because we know that it’s the true Economy and that God gives us grace to interrupt the world that is with the world that ought to be.
JAR: Why do you think some Christians are suspicious of and/or resist many of the ideas in the book?
JWH: When Jesus talks about money, he sounds crazy to us. He says “give to whoever asks” and “store up treasure for yourselves in heaven.” We’re in the habit of either dismissing his tactics as verses we’ll never understand or spiritualizing them into a neat lesson for our souls, somehow separated from our wallets. I don’t think this should surprise us, given that we live in the richest nation to ever exist in the world. But I do think it should concern those of us who claim that Jesus is the hope of the whole world. If we don’t take God’s Economy seriously, who will?
JAR: If Christians in North America could make any external change of lifestyle in respect to this topic, what would you hope it might be?
JWH: I’d love Christians to be known as the people who are generous. You know, people talk about us outside the church. They say we’re killjoys or they say we’re Bible-thumpers. Some folks even say we’re nice. But we don’t have a reputation for being extremely generous. In these hard economic times, though, I’d love to hear rumors that churches are the place to go—that the people there are crazy enough to share when no one else will or even when they don’t have enough for themselves. It’s said that in some of the early Christian communities the whole group would fast if they found out there was someone among them who didn’t have enough to eat. I’d love to hear stories like that circulating about Christians these days.
JAR: Which books have most influenced you on this topic?
JWH: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Especially John. Jesus’ good news about abundant and eternal life in John’s gospel is really the heart of God’s Economy. It’s there in all the gospels, but John really stresses the point. I read John closely as I was writing this book.
I also found Jacques Ellul’s Money and Power to be helpful as I was thinking about why the prosperity gospel has such a grip on the church right now. It’s an older book, and it was written in a different context, but I think Ellul saw clearly the demand for allegiance that Money asserts in modern life.
JAR: Tell us something unusual about yourself that we would otherwise not know?
JWH: My first job was starting a small business with my older brother in our home town. I sold out at 17 to finish high school in Germany, but my brother kept at it. He still runs the business today. I just wear the T-shirts.
JAR: Thanks Jonathan.
NOTE: Jonathan will be visiting and speaking in Winnipeg next month.
