- Theology of economics: Definition
- The Moral Character of Economic Life
- How Spirituality Shapes Economic Behaviour
- How Economic Status Affects Spiritual Life
- Desire: The Deeper Link Between Economics and Spirituality
The last weeks focused on the theology of innovation. Today marks the beginning of a new phase of my weekly reflections: the theology of economics.
Theology of economics: Definition
Economics concerns money, production, and consumption. It also concerns human desires, values, choices, and relationships. Theology of economics focuses on how religious beliefs, doctrines, and moral vision shape economic behaviour and institutions. Theology of economics differs from economic theology in that the former begins with theology and examines economics. It asks how economic life should be understood and judged in light of the Christian faith. On the other hand, economic theology starts with economics or social reality and examines theology in light of it. It questions how theological ideas are shaped by economic realities or how economic concepts function like theological ones.
Spirituality is any religious or ethical value concretised as an attitude from which one’s actions flow. Christian spirituality concerns one’s entire life as understood, felt, imagined and decided upon in relationship to God. Since the human person is at the centre of economic and religious activity, spirituality serves as the foundation for any discussion on the theology of economics. Hence, today’s post focuses on the strong relationship between economics and Christian spirituality.
The relationship between economics and Christian spirituality is rooted in the belief that material life is not separate from the divine but a sphere in which faith is lived out through stewardship, vocation, and justice. While modern economics often treats humans as rational, independent beings focused on personal welfare, Christian spirituality views the human person as a relational being made in the image of God (imago Dei), called to manage resources for the common good.
Economics asks how we use resources, while spirituality asks what the resources are for, and what kind of person we should become in using them. One of the deepest points of contact between economics and spirituality is work. In economics, work is associated with income, production, survival, and social participation. In spirituality, work concerns vocation, stewardship, participation in God’s creative activity (Laborem Exercens, 25), service to others, and the working out of one’s salvation in daily life (cf. Phil. 2:12).
The Moral Character of Economic Life
Pope Benedict XVI emphasises that “the economic sphere is neither ethically neutral, nor inherently inhuman” and that, precisely because it is human, “it must be structured and governed in an ethical manner”(Caritas in Veritate, 36). Indeed, “justice must be applied to every phase of economic activity … and “every economic decision has a moral consequence” (Caritas in Veritate, 37).
Pope Francis strongly criticised an “economy of exclusion” and the “idolatry of money”, showing how distorted economic structures can become spiritually dehumanising (Evangelii Gaudium, 53-57). In light of this relationship, the Church speaks of social justice, which entails providing the conditions that enable individuals or associations to obtain what is due to them, according to their nature and vocation (CCC, 1928).
How Spirituality Shapes Economic Behaviour
Spirituality governs the moral quality of economic action. Spirituality shapes economic behaviour by directly influencing how people act in economic contexts, such as how one earns money (honestly or dishonestly), how one spends money (responsibly or wastefully), how one saves (prudently or fearfully), how one gives (generously or selfishly), how one works (as service or mere survival), and how one sees others (as neighbours or as instruments for making money).
On the other hand, economic status exerts a profound moral influence on how the human person encounters God, interprets life, and lives out one’s faith.
The binary of economic status is wealth and poverty. Hence, one can distinguish between material wealth and material poverty on the one hand, and spiritual riches and spiritual poverty on the other. The material binaries concern the availability, unavailability, and scarcity of material resources. Spiritual poverty (poverty in spirit) means detachment from earthly riches, humility, and total dependence on God for spiritual and bodily needs (CCC, 2544-2547). Spiritual riches refer to the interior goods of the soul that prepare us for eternal life. They include virtues, faith, grace, charity, and good works.
How Economic Status Affects Spiritual Life
First, material poverty can intensify dependence on God. When people are economically vulnerable, they experience insecurity, uncertainty, and the need to depend on others. Faith is no longer an abstract concept but an existential reality for survival. Hence, this situation fosters deeper and more regular prayer, stronger trust in divine providence, communal solidarity, and a spirituality of hope and endurance. In such situations, the temporal dimensions of Christ’s saving work become especially visible: healing, feeding, deliverance, and protection.
Conversely, poverty can also undermine authentic Christian spirituality because extreme economic hardship can lead to despair (loss of hope in God), resentment toward God for not fulfilling his promises, religious disillusionment (loss of faith due to unanswered prayers and suffering due to lack of funds), transactional religiosity (I am religious so that God can bless me financially), and vulnerability to manipulation by prosperity preaching or miracle exploitation. Therefore, material deprivation can either be a school of faith or a crisis of faith.
On the other hand, economic stability or material wealth can support spirituality by providing room for growth in faith. One who is not constantly worried about providing the necessities of life and paying school or hospital bills often has greater capacity for contemplation, theological learning, sustained ministry, and disciplined generosity. In other words, material stability can provide conditions that support a more disciplined and sustained spiritual life.
Conversely, economic prosperity can also weaken spirituality because it produces self-sufficiency as in the case of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21), spiritual complacency (a state of inner religious self-satisfaction in which a person becomes comfortable, unchallenged, and no longer seriously striving for growth in holiness), pride (because of a privileged economic position), materialism and consumerism (which Christ’s suffering and passion challenge), reduced sense of dependence on God (because the temporal needs have been largely sorted), and indifference to the suffering of others (since one’s perception of success can make one to believe others should work hard to get to that point and they do not need help).
Hence, the enduring importance of the evangelical spirit of poverty, that is, a disciplined detachment from possessions so that created goods do not displace God (CCC, 226). Pope John XXIII teaches that economic abundance without spiritual goods impoverishes the soul and profits nothing. Hence, he warns that economic progress must be accompanied by growth in morality (Ad Petri Cathedram, 48). Pope Pius XI also teaches that wealth demands stewardship, in which the wealthy must view goods as means of charity (Divini Redemptoris, 44).
Pope Paul VI affirms that the zeal for the spirit of poverty “is no obstacle to the proper understanding and rightful application of the important laws of economics”, because “the inner freedom which results from zeal for evangelical poverty makes us more sensitive to the human aspects of economic questions and better fitted to understand them” (Ecclesiam Suam, 55).
Desire: The Deeper Link Between Economics and Spirituality
It is easy to label money as the connection between economics and spirituality. However, the issue is not about having money but what money does to one’s heart. One fundamental connection between economics and spirituality is desire. Economics is driven by human wants, while spirituality concerns the relationship with God and therefore asks whether those desires align with an ordered relationship with God. It is noteworthy that many economic crises are actually spiritual crises of desire, such as greed, envy, fear, consumerism, and exploitation. These manifest in institutions and society as inflation, corruption, exploitation and extreme inequality.
St. Paul rightly clarifies that money is not the problem, but the “love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim 6:10). Hence, the prayer in the book of Proverbs is necessary: “Two things I ask of thee; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, “Who is the LORD?” or lest I be poor, and steal, and profane the name of my God” (Proverbs 30:7-9).
May God continue to help us🙏🏾
K’ọdị🙋🏾♂️
Two major points in your treatment of this subject that deserve deep consideration are the condition of the heart and stewardship. The scriptures tell us that it is the love of money that is the root of all kinds of evil. Lust of the eyes is what brought sin into the world, and an extreme desire for monetary gain unto materialism opens the door to sin. To your second point, it serves us well to use Joseph as an example of stewardship. En route to him being abundantly blessed, God had to test his heart so that Joseph could properly distribute goods during a famine. A person with bad character and poor stewardship would be inclined to think only of their own survival. I believe that, like the church in the Book of Acts, our material wealth should benefit others and not just ourselves.
Another point is the role of poverty in spirituality. Your examples acknowledge that one’s heart posture impacts how poverty is spiritually experienced. Poverty can either draw one closer to God because they learned to depend on Him or push them away because they may feel unworthy, cursed, or that God does not provide. On the other hand, another in poverty may wish to draw close to God for the sole purpose of having their needs met and not because they have learned to trust, love, and depend on Him.