Healing Affluenza and Resisting Plutocracy: Luke's Jesus and Sabbath Economics

by Ched Myers, Chuck Collins (foreword)

Myers brings a well-honed interpretive eye to a thematic study of Luke's Gospel. He reads synoptically the crisis of socioeconomic disparity in Jesus's world and ours, and proposes powerful analogies that can build social imagination and animate personal and political practices for systemic change and justiceamong communities of faith today.

There has been a revival of interest over the last half century in the Third Gospel's focus on issues of poverty and wealth. However, most exegetical or homiletic work by scholars and preachers of the Global North has been constrained by middle-class social assumptions, which inevitably domesticate Jesus's radical teaching and practice. To counter this, Myers argues that Luke's literary arc and individual representations are best interpreted through the lens of "Sabbath Economics" in the Hebrew Bible. He then brings socio-literary analysis and engaged commentary to bear on Luke's wise oldstories, correlating his narrative structures and symbols to systemic political and economic issues then and now.

Luke's unique material, and how he redacts Mark and Q, reveals his unequivocal critique of socioeconomic disparity. Myers closely examines footprints and "demonstration projects" of Sabbath Economics in the first half of Luke, then considers archetypal characters, somatic representations, and socially contrasting scenarios of rich and poor in the second half. His approach deploys sociological exegesis, literary analysis, and liberation hermeneutics to recover Luke's story of Jesus in its historical context and its relevance to ours. A small-town prophet struggles against an imperial political-economic system that is bringing the extractive, exploitive rule of Mammon to occupied Palestine, and shows and tells how regular people can resist the rule of the one percent by embracing "the Great Economy." Myers includes suggestions for preaching Luke in Year C, and offers resources on economic equity organizing for our own Gilded Age.

Genres: Theology

346 pages, Paperback

Published January 21, 2025

Reviews

[Thomas Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I head towards retirement and ponder John Wesley's Covenant Prayer; specifically the part: "put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt, put me to doing, put me to suffering.' A key part of my decision to retire at 65 and not at 72 (as was a possibility) - THIS BOOK has indicated to me my next steps. Perhaps Ministry begins when you leave formal ties with the institution.
When I graduated from Seminary Myers 'Binding the Strong Man' commentary on Mark was leading me in directions Daniel Berrigan's work started me on while in High School. Finishing my first reading today of 'Healing Affluenza . . .' I realize it needs a second reading and I will be working my way through it on his 34 week plan. Maybe finding a community where in person we can work through the implications together, maybe not ("rank me with whom thou wilt").
For those who are looking for more than simply grousing through the current political environment this offers an approach to life which is what discipleship to Jesus ought to be about in the first place.
The two appendices are very useful for determining next steps.
I feel called to write a biography about Francis of Assisi - its a grandiose vision - but here's the thing I don't want to write a 'Kum ba yah' everything is wonderful bio - but instead want to explore how one human being (Francis) discovered what I believe is the vision laid out by Ched Myers and managed to unwittingly inspire people of means and better educated than he to form a community dedicated to the ideas written eight hundred years later by Myers. Don't be mislead - Myers says little about Francis. Indeed, he even ridicules those of us inspired by Francis - "Luke's remarkable sequence, so long shrugged off by the church as Jesus' cute little Saint Francis moment . . ."
I'm almost certain Myers would take issue with this quote saying it was taken out of context - and meant to be the way the world marginalizes Jesus' vision as well as Francis'. I guess what I'm trying to say is that in his day Francis pulled off what Myers is trying to accomplish here. The sooner we do it, the sooner we'll see "The great economy" Myers writes of.
Well, that's my stream of consciousness for the moment.

[Bob Gross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read for RCL preachers in Year C.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. So much in here. Needs to be re-read at least a few times.