Two great subjects, and now Kester Brewin and some of the Vaux community are talking about them together, and therefore also probably talking deeply and using unusual words like 'praxis'. And, wonderfully appropriately, calling it Apple.Here's a flavour of one recent post:
[Apple] is an evolving praxis around the core interconnected questions at the centre of human survival: how do we move beyond the perma-hunger of Capitalism, and how do we connect to an sustainable environmental agenda. Red Apple, Green Apple.These do seem to be where the conversation about technology (tool-making and resource use) and theology have to go. In particular, over the last few posts I think I’ve personally hit upon a tension-space I want to map out more clearly:Christianity has failed [in the public realm] because it failed to generate a radical economics. Marx failed because he failed to understand the human spirit.I am not a Marxist. I am not chasing after an ideology. Rather, I think there may be some energy in the ashes of both ideologies, a burnt alchemy that may create hope from these twin failures.Experiments, collaborations, conversations… we will attempt to traverse these failed spaces with failures of our own close by. Why? Because the only answer to ‘what is to be done?’ can be ‘not nothing.’
Yes indeed, Capitalism panders to some of the same human weaknesses that Marx(ism) failed to spot. It was mostly Christian voices calling for a fundamental review of our financial thinking as a result of the recent economic crises, not just tinkering with the role of banks. Those voices have gone quiet (or they're not reported) and I've only heard Jonathon Porritt recently on this theme.An important conversation, and one I'll try to follow.