'Defending the innocence of the victims'

On Tuesday, Jung Mo Sung, a Catholic lay theologian teaching at the Methodist University of Sao Paolo and who came to Brazil from South Korea in 1966, explored faith responses to the global economic crisis. According to Sung, the author of "The Subject, Capitalism, and Religion: Horizons of Hope in Complex Societies", a typical response of churches is to use moral appeals or ethical arguments, but moral appeals don't work because people don't share the same values and such appeals assume the problem is an issue of people's subjective morality. An ethical appeal can point towards the need for a universal ethical system, but the strength of the church is not in its ethical orientation but in its spiritual and theological foundation.

Alongside moral and ethical appeals, churches also articulate a theological critique by talking of "God's economy" in distinction to the current global economy, or speak of "God's judgment" on the economy. However, these are the "wrong ideas" according to Jung No Sung. By talking of "God's economy" this makes the economy into a sacred/divine system rather than the result of human actions. However it is neo-liberalism that has turned the economy into a sacred system by making the market an unquestionable given; talking of God's judgment implies a model on which judgment is based, but this also makes the economy a matter of divine action, and one that does not answer the questions of production, distribution and dealing with scare resources. The non-deliberate effects is that this is not seen as an alternative and thus the neo-liberals (who claim there is no alternative to the present economic order) are seen as being right.

Instead, Sung's starting point is an analysis of the foundations of the market society; the meaning of history is economic progress; a spirituality of consumerism; a free-market system representing the best civilization; and the invisible hand of history representing divine providence in history. Thus, at the heart of western culture there is a fundamental theological idea that "God" controls history and that justifies sanctions against the poor (who are to blame because they are inefficient). This is symbolised in the shopping centres that are the new cathedrals of the modern age.

In developing alternatives, spirituality plays a major role - a theme that he develops further in his book "Desire, Market, Religion" - in defending the innocence of the victims sacrificed on the altars of wealth of the institutions of the international capitalist systems, and in giving of hope for plenty, when the reality is scarcity.