7 The Bible , Doctrine and Economic Issues .sx Putting things as simply as possible , we can say that decision - making in the Christian life means both acting from the right motive and making the right decision in particular cases .sx It means having a sensitive conscience which uses its power of reasoning on moral issues with discernment .sx Motivation involves what the catholic tradition calls " spiritual formation " , including the practice of public worship and private prayer , which themselves embrace reflection on Christian sources in the Bible and the tradition of doctrine .sx It also involves a mutual building up within the Christian community of perceptiveness by discussion , dialogue and , on occasions , pastoral counselling .sx All this is not the direct concern of this book .sx Bringing these resources to bear on particular issues is our concern .sx How this is done applies , of course , to every area of life , personal and social , but we are focussing on economic issues .sx It is evident that some knowledge of the data of these issues is indispensable , even if it is often not as adequate as we would like .sx If we do not know the data we cannot focus on the issue .sx It is also evident that the data cannot come from the Bible or doctrine .sx They can only come from understanding evidence in the present .sx That is why in respect of many of the issues an element of expertise is needed on which to draw ( though not uncritically) .sx But expertise by itself does not settle the matter .sx The further question is how we relate the two elements needed in ethical decision-making :sx the Bible and the doctrinal tradition on the one hand , and the data of the contemporary world on the other .sx How much detail can we derive from them ?sx Certainly the former give us an understanding of human life and destiny ( or , put another way , of nature , humanity and God ) , which then has to be brought alongside our analysis of 'what is going on' in our contemporary situation .sx I suggest that there is a reciprocal relation between the two .sx The Christian sources give us criteria which are important in selecting and interpreting from the mass of contemporary data .sx These criteria are not necessarily peculiar to Christianity , but may overlap at times with those of other faiths , religious and humanist .sx But the data may also reflect back on our understanding of the Christian sources and lead us to reflect on them anew , instead of inheriting them as a fixed and unchangeable deposit from the past .sx For example , the human sciences of psychology and sociology have modified and enriched the understanding of the personal which is central to Christian faith .sx In this way an ongoing reflection on our past in the light of our experience of the present is always at work in the church at every level , from church leaders and governing bodies downwards to particular congregations , and to groups thinking and praying together within congregations , or groups of Christians with similar vocational concerns meeting together in medicine , education , industry and commerce , administration or the arts .sx I am broadly content with this account .sx Of course , it can be greatly expanded , and would need to be in a thorough exposition of method in Christian ethics .sx Many , however , are unhappy with it .sx To them it seems altogether too contextual and relativistic .sx It seems to be in danger of selling out to whatever notions are popular with the intelligentsia ( or , less likely , the 'workers' ) at a given moment .sx It reminds them of Dean Inge's remark that he who marries the spirit of the age soon finds himself a widower in the next .sx They want something much more fixed and detailed .sx This is particularly the case with the Bible .sx 1 .sx The use of the Bible .sx Behind this search for more detailed and unchangeable material from the Bible lies a belief , particularly in some evangelical circles , that God is the author of scripture , and that every text therefore has potential permanent authority .sx It is assumed that God reveals himself to humans through the words of scripture without any of the cultural and relativizing factors and shifts in the meanings of words which occur when humans communicate by words with one another .sx This attitude is reinforced by the current practice of saying " This is the word of the Lord " after reading in church services a non-gospel passage from the Bible .sx Thus an epistle from St Paul to one of the churches is turned into an epistle from God to St Paul .sx By contrast there is much to be said for the traditional Anglican appeal to scripture , tradition and reason .sx Indeed the Bible alone has not proved enough to establish doctrine .sx The church had in fact to go outside it in order to protect its understanding of Christ at the time of the Arian controversy , and its wording is embodied in the 'Nicene' Creed .sx Tradition alone also will not do , or the church would never do anything for the first time .sx Reason is important :sx not the deductive reason which can draw logical conclusions from a premiss sic !sx , but a historical and critical reason .sx However , reason must also have the Bible and tradition to work on , or it will be conjuring up rational abstractions , because the Christian faith is rooted in the life and ministry of Jesus , which occurred at a particular time and place in history .sx The kingdom of God is the focus of Jesus' ministry :sx a radical understanding of God's way of exercising his rule as king or sovereign over his creation , and one which is always seeking expression in human life and institutions and always transcending any particular expression .sx Jesus did not give us detailed moral rules , even on marriage and divorce , or on what precisely is due to the state ( Caesar) .sx His teaching is questioning , illuminating , liberating , imaginative and life-giving .sx There are indeed many contextual decisions elsewhere in the Bible , but we cannot move directly from them to the modern world .sx In the New Testament they are concerned with how the people of God should behave to one another ( for instance , Paul says they should not go to law against one another in secular courts ) , and how they should relate to the state .sx In the Old Testament this was not a problem because church and state were one kingdom :sx Israel was a theocracy .sx From New Testament times there has always been a problem because there are two kingdoms , both God's kingdoms , but with different tasks .sx The Christendom situation in Europe ( pre-supposed by Hooker in England ) which united them again is now almost gone ; it was an exception in Christian history , in the course of which the church has lived under a great variety of state authorities .sx The National Evangelical Anglican conference at Nottingham in 1977 said very wisely that :sx 1 .sx the words of scripture are to be understood in their context ; 2 .sx the context is to be understood in terms of the cultural assumptions of the writers ; 3 .sx there is need for alertness to our own cultural assumptions .sx However , many evangelicals , and others , have not accepted this , or do not follow it in practice .sx Sometimes the attempt is made to take a single text or a catena of texts as a simple rule or example .sx Hundreds of Puritan sermons were preached in the year after the execution of Charles I , 1648-49 , on the text of Psalm 149.8 , which has the words :sx " To bind their kings in chains ; and their nobles with links of iron .sx " Karl Barth , in a startling passage in 'The Christian Community and the Civil Community' , says that because Jesus is the light of the world there must be no secret diplomacy .sx In the nineteenth century a strong defence of slavery was advanced by detailing biblical texts , and in this century homosexuality is attacked by the same method .sx Many other examples could be quoted .sx However , some who see the inadequacy of quoting texts in this way want to derive from them principles which can then be followed in a contemporary context .sx How well does this work ?sx I take three examples .sx 1 .sx A paper from the Cambridge ( UK ) Jubilee Centre says that we should establish the intention of the original text in its social context ( for this is God himself speaking ) , then look for analogies or situational correspondences between the situation today and that in the Bible , and then apply the moral principle involved .sx If the Old Testament says in Leviticus 25 that all land is to be returned to the original owners every fifty years , we can work back by abstraction to the need for justice in economic life .sx We are to exclude in the Old Testament requirements which ( a ) are part of the sacrificial law ; ( b ) are designed to make Israel exclusive of others ; ( c ) assert that Israel is executing God's judgment on Canaan ; ( d ) are purely theocratic , since church and state were one Kingdom .sx In the New Testament we are to exclude :sx ( a ) a command addressed to an individual ; ( b ) one addressed to the church as an economic community .sx The Old Testament is to be a paradigm for a pattern of relationships between key institutions - family , kinship , state , land , capital and community - which is to be replicated today " in certain fundamental respects " .sx In practice , this leads to a strong emphasis in Jubilee Centre publications on the extended family as against the state .sx But in so far as content can be given to it , the requirement that such a paradigmatic correspondence between Israel's institutions in biblical times and the ones today , whether we live in the First , Second or Third Worlds , seems an arbitrary restriction .sx 2 .sx Associated with the same group is a campaign for keeping Sunday special , in the sense of restrictions on trading activities so that it remains different from the other six days of the week .sx The four principles underlying the campaign are all alleged to be biblically based , but whatever we may think of them , the texts quoted will not work as a basis for the principles .sx ( a ) The purpose behind the sabbath is love to God , so that we do not give him the odd bits of our time but the best .sx The text here is Luke 10.27 , which is Jesus' two-fold summary of the Torah as love of God and neighbour .sx ( b ) The sabbath protects the low-income worker from pressure to work seven days a week .sx The text is Deuteronomy 5.12-16 ( a variation of Exodus 20 ) , where the weight falls on the deliverance from Egypt , though the welfare of slaves is mentioned .sx ( c ) Family , community and church life are preserved if everyone is at leisure at the same time .sx Here the Exodus 10.8-11 passage is quoted , but that stresses that the family should keep the sabbath not because of the family , but because God keeps it .sx ( d ) The sabbath follows a regular rhythm of work and rest which is God's design .sx The quotation is Genesis 2.3 , but this is not concerned with biological rhythms but with God the creator .sx It seems clear that in the Old Testament , in a one-kingdom situation , the sabbath is a stretch of time to be set apart for God .sx In the New Testament it also seems clear that there is no stress on keeping any day special in the sense intended by the four principles .sx These may very well be wise principles , but they cannot be sustained by quoting texts in the way proposed .sx That Christians should specially worship together on Sunday , a new day celebrating Jesus' triumph over death , is quite another matter .sx That work and leisure are both divine gifts is also another matter .sx What state regulation should be , and how workers should be safeguarded against unjust demands by employers in a competitive society , is yet a third question .sx 3 .sx An extended attempt to arrive at biblical principles for the economic order is made by Donald Hay in the book referred to in Chapter 6 .sx He derives eight principles by what he calls a process of deduction and imaginative reflection from the great biblical themes of creation , fall , judgment and the people of God .sx