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by Michael D. Royster
No Tide Rising: Theology, Economics, and the Future
By Joerg Rieger, (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2009. Paperback pp. xii + 192 pp. $20.00. ISBN 978-0-8006-6459-6)
As a systematic theology scholar at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, the author Joerg Rieger has consistently challenged conventional theological discourses that disregard the harsh realities of economic crise Rieger, Joerg, s. No Tide Rising addresses Western Christianity’s collective underestimation in collapsing financial market’s disturbing effects on humanity, and its theological implications. Rieger warns readers that economic instability and pessimism will inevitably escalate without a substantive individual and institutional shift in trajectory. The text implicitly denounces the ideology of micro-level charity as sufficient, while refraining from structural adjustments as an essential part of Christianity’s role in actively transforming society as an agent of justice. In five concise chapters, Rieger dispels the myth that faith and religion function independently from economics, while exposing how the ‘sub-middle class’ suffers from religion’s perpetuating the myth.
The first two chapters present the civic dogma of “the rising tide” as a 19th Century socially constructed scam, which has undergone globalization and recent exposure. Rieger critiques the “middle class church” as having collective guilt for contributing to a broad ecclesiastical culture’s unsustainable false sense of economic security. The author effectively expresses the state of the church from a marginal perspective to a greater extent than most relative systematic theological understandings. Such perspective entails a belief that the Horatio Alger myth of the universal accessibility of upward social and economic building contradicts reality. Furthermore, Rieger draws attention to the over-spiritualization of theological praxis which removes the racial economic disparity from the dialogue.
Chapter three focuses on the trend of mainline churches becoming increasing influenced by the permeation of “prosperity gospel” elements. The belief in a benevolent “invisible hand” in control of free markets reinforces social-Darwinist ideological thought both inside and outside the church, such that direct market intervention becomes discouraged during crisis. Under such social and religious tenets, the overt expression of a lack of faith in the free market or its rhetorical references equates to civic blasphemy. Rieger stresses that “if religious people want to talk about how faith can impact their use of money, they first need to understand how the use of money impacts their faith.” (79) The author further argues that adherents to mainline Christian culture collectively deny that capitalism contains the basic elements of religion. Classical sociological theorist Emile Durkheim would argue that capitalism contains rituals, a moral community, and a set of beliefs. Rieger further argumentatively opposes the conventions of “invisible hand” ideology with an additional reference to classical sociological theorist Thorstein Veblen. “Economic institutionalism, a school of economics based on the work of Thorstein Veblen, notes for instance, that the market is never a purely formal entity, yet the author finds it perplexing why the church strictly adheres to laissez-faire socio-religious discourse rather than develop alternatives.
In chapter four, Rieger challenges the myth that humans have the innate will to consume endlessly and unyieldingly by giving account to the atrocities economic loss have on entire social sectors. The author is one of a growing number of clergy and theologians who hold the church and other forms of organized religion accountable for contributing to the socio-economic status quo. “Religion is frequently the ally of free-market capitalism.” (98)
The fifth chapter stresses empowering the common person as compared to conventional aristocracy-like systems of social engagement which have long proposed an ecclesiastical endorsed system of unrestrained consumption and waste as the solution to social problems. Rieger further supports such claims by critiquing the truncated interpretation of Christian creeds which embrace beliefs, yet ignore the implications of the life and ministry of Christ.
Throughout the text, Rieger raises the theological issue of the problem with habitual consumption as a mean and unsuccessful attempt to fill a spiritual void. Due to human’s insatiable appetites, mammon itself becomes empowered to function as the ultimate false-god. In his critique, the author takes a sympathetic approach towards “fiscally conservative” policy per se if it involves a broad commitment to justice. However, he essentially equates the economic reality of such policies as the proliferation of greed and deprivation. Such irony has been overlooked by large sectors of the American culture until recently. Rieger’s bold assertions about the church and the markets involve a degree of risk due to an escalating, hostile polarization which permeates both civil society and the church.
An indigenous perspective would have further strengthened Rieger’s arguments. In the long run, the relatively small fraction of the world’s population grows increasingly addicted to excessive overindulgence which also defies their self-interest due to the near-irreversible ecological destruction which results from humanity’s primary materialistic resource upon self-reliance.
Michael D. Royster is a professor at Prairie View A&M University, Division of Social Work, Behavioral and Political Sciences and is an Itinerant Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
