As we do each year, the Oikonomia Network held a curricular integration workshop at the 2015 Acton University conference. One hundred theological educators divided into tables by discipline and discussed ideas for including work and the economy in every area of the seminary curriculum, from New Testament and Old Testament classes to systematic theology, ethics, history, missions, spiritual formation, and more.
A key challenge for our community is moving beyond special elective classes on work and the economy, to improve our curricular integration in core classes. This year, our AU workshop focused on identifying “touchpoints” – places in existing classes where work and the economy arise organically within the subject matter. These points represent the low-hanging fruit for curricular integration.
The list of touchpoints generated by theological educators at each table is below, with some examples to whet your appetite.
Notes from our previous AU curricular integration workshops are available here (2014) and here (2013).
Old Testament touchpoints
Examples:
- The picture of work in the Messianic Age
- The sheer pervasiveness of preaching against economic sins in the prophets
- Laws and teachings concerning the marginalized (orphan, widow, stranger, etc.)
- Sabbath laws—the work and rest balance
New Testament touchpoints
Examples:
- Parables about money
- The discussion of work in 1 and 2 Thessalonians
- Support of the poor in the Jerusalem church
- New Testament theological issues: creation/new creation, inheritance, redemption, realized eschatology
Systematic Theology touchpoints
Examples:
- Image of God: created to be co-workers with the God who works
- General revelation as foundation for work/economics as good
- Sacred – secular, holy – profane, holy – common
- 4:11 as equipping for workplace
- Work in the new earth (work/eschatology)
Christian History touchpoints
Examples:
- The rise of trade, towns, and the middle class beginning in the 11th-13th centuries. This was concomitant with lay renewal movements, both within the Roman Catholic Church (Brethren of the Common Life) and among the marginal or persecuted (Waldensians).
- The positive impact of Christian mission: democracy, economic development, and literacy are just three examples of Gospel influence in a culture and nation. (Robert Woodberry, “The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy”)
- The impact of Methodism in the 18th and 19th century: we need to hear all voices, especially ones outside the Halevy and E.P. Thompson debates
- We have a responsibility to help students hear other voices on economics and work as it related to culture and mission: for example, W.E.B. DuBois on what it meant to be “Negro and American” in the late 19th/early 20th century can inform us
Ethics and Philosophy Table 1 touchpoints
Examples:
- The connection between a culture of trust and economic prosperity
- Connecting the virtues to a work ethic (and ultimately the fruit of the Spirit)
- We can use the prevalence of the prosperity gospel as an open doorway to explore the Bible’s teaching on wealth and money
- We can connect the economic benefits of marriage and family, in addition to the destructive economic consequences of divorce; this is especially the case given that the original concept of oikonomia was the family/household
- We want to be sure when doing ethics and economics, that we start with our transcendent metaethic then move to economics, not the other way around
Ethics and Philosophy Table 2 touchpoints
Examples:
- Meaning and significance of work in Genesis 2 and application in contemporary experience
- The meaning of working “for the glory of God”
- Duty to care for those in the household of God, differentiated from the duty to care for those outside (though both are duties)
- The Decalogue on work and economics
Spiritual Formation touchpoints
Examples:
- Stewardship; contemplation of calling; discovering peace/shalom in every area of our oikos
- Fellowship of peers; changing the accountability paradigm
- In pastoral counseling classes it is important to discuss the need for personal wellness, including financial wellness and the impact of such wellness, or lack thereof, on congregants
- Create field trips for classes to experience industry workplaces to get a feel for the spiritual issues and opportunities in various workplaces
Church Leadership touchpoints
Examples:
- Change and innovation: God is the first entrepreneur; leading change as co-creators yields lasting fruit
- Organizational development: budget and buildings, controlling debt, just employment, local investment
- Cross-cultural leadership: structural/systemic barriers to holistic well-being weakened by cross-cultural trust
- Pastor as public theologian, e.g., writing op-eds, blogs, etc.
- Teach vocation as culture building, an act of shaping work environments (resource: Kent Duncan’s Blue Collar Challenge)
Missions, Evangelism, and Cultural Studies touchpoints
Examples:
- Entrepreneurial church planting
- Business incubation and mentoring
- Cross-cultural views on money/wealth
- How class/caste affects economic activity
- Creativity and craftsmanship
- Addressing the prosperity gospel, particularly in developing countries
Education touchpoints
Examples:
- Bloom’s taxonomy; e.g., craft instructional strategies/assessments for work/econ at each Bloom level
- Problem-based learning; e.g., present a scenario of well-intentioned but ineffective anti-poverty efforts
- Case study; e.g., for youth pastors, draft narratives of different young people’s attitudes
- Vocational Voyages – Coordinate field trips to business environments (urban, suburban, and rural) and international contexts to observe the benefits of work, and the economic activity and human flourishing that work produces
