Biblical Economic Ethics

Barrera offers an account of biblical teachings on the economy that is characterized by thorough and clear presentation of the ancient texts, fair and thoughtful analysis of passages within their biblical context, and sensible and reasonable discussions of how to apply this material to the contemporary world. He begins forthrightly with a well-conceived presentation of methodological issues, thereby allowing his readers to experience the range of deliberations in which he himself necessarily engaged in the process of research and writing. This prologue, if you will, gives readers an appropriate context in which to evaluate Barrera's forays into the Old Testament (including the Apocrypha) and the New Testament. Readers are also in a position to appreciate, even if they do not fully accept, the perspective from which Barrera constructs the concluding chapters of his book (part 3) under the rubric, 'Toward a Biblical Theology of Economic Life.' This book should be required reading for everyone who takes seriously the role of the Bible in the assessment of current economic policies that, for better or worse, are determinative in how people live their lives at the micro- and the macro-level. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through graduate students; general readers. * CHOICE *
Biblical Economic Ethics, is a wide-ranging, excellent study . . .Among the burgeoning literature on the Bible and economic issues, this thoughtful and highly readable contribution represents a must read work. . . .This book has a number of strengths. It is well researched and judicious. Students and those new to the literature concerning economics and the Bible will find Barrera’s summaries of biblical materials as well as his introductions to scholarly theories and debates to be well organized. . . .Barrera’s summative contributions in the third portion . . . are thoughtful, stimulating, and insightful. Biblical Economic Ethics is an important work that merits a wide readership. * Biblical Interpretation *
Biblical Economic Ethics is a model of careful and thorough scholarship. . . .The book is brimming with insight. . . .Readers looking for a balanced and careful synthesis of modern scholarship on biblical teachings on economics could not do better than to turn to this volume. * Faith and Economics *
Most conventional church exposition of Scripture has tilted the text toward “spiritual matters,” as though the Gospel were about “saving souls,” most especially for “the after-life.” Barrera offers a serious, sustained alternative to that propensity by a focus on economic issues that are at the center of the text. Barrera is well read and well-informed on this literature, and brings to his task a critical eye for the interface between the text and its various contexts; those contexts are regularly marked by precarious peasant agricultural work, most often in the midst of coercive imperial taxation. Readers will be invited by this discussion to reflect on our own contemporary interface between the good news of the Gospel and the acute economic crisis that we face. -- Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary
This finely argued book will enhance the use of the Bible in Christian economic reflection. By attending to the specific economic concerns of individual biblical books, and processing their messages through a careful theological, exegetical, and hermeneutical method, Barrera identifies important economic themes that can contribute to 'the fullness of human flourishing.' He shows how 'Biblical Economics' is yet relevant to modern Christian ethics. -- Douglas E. Oakman, Pacific Lutheran University and author of Jesus and the Economic Questions of His Day
Albino Barrera's comprehensive overview of biblical teachings on economic affairs provides a valuable resource for contemporary theological and ethical quests to foster more just and equitable practices within a complex and expanding global economy. Barrera directs attention to the persistent biblical emphasis on the importance of communal and social bonds for human flourishing and the urgent need to pursue practices that protect the well-being of those who are most vulnerable. These themes are examined in relation to the changing social contexts that structured the life worlds of the people of Israel and that subsequently shaped Galilean and Roman arrangements within which the Christian mission emerged. -- Thomas W. Ogletree, Yale University Divinity School