It is a challenge for we mere humans to avoid ideological bias, nearly impossible actually. So it is not the presence of ideology that bothers me, that is only to be expected, but the degree in which the ideology is recognized and its difficulties worked around.

There is no question that the “earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” which the writers seem to recognize in the beginning of their book. If one keeps that in mind and does not descend into the materialist idea that all of nature is ours and can be capitalized and abused as we see fit, there is no reason not to use our ability to create and trade to build something more than what we had before. Indeed, to me, that is part of the command to us in Genesis to “dress and keep the earth” and is also and extension of the command to be fruitful.

Our age is an age of ideology as Solzhenitsyn pointed out years ago. Whether the ideology is economic, political, scientific or philosophical, they share one thing in common, the desire to make the human mind, God. The subsequent tyranny and dehumanization (paradoxically) that comes from that is seen in the world around us. The Romanian Orthodox playwright, Eugene Ionesco made that point in a brilliant play, Exit the King, back in the 1960’s. My encounter with that play was an important point on my journey to the Church. Man’s will destroys, God’s will alone gives life–life in abundance and inexhaustible.

One of the crucial aspects of the book that I have been able to discern so far is the centrality of thanksgiving that the authors maintain in our approach to the rest of the created world.

Materialist economic philosophies such as communism, socialism, mercantilism, fascism, darwinistic/crony capitalism, or Calvinistic capitalism that partakes of the Gnostic hatred of matter lead to the despoliation of the earth and reduce the its natural abundance.

Keep in mind: abusus non tollit usum: abuse does not destroy use.

Is there anything wrong with using capitalist principals in a God inspired way to alleviate suffering, protect and enhance the natural world and build a world with less want?

Is there any other economic philosophy that you see that will do better? (putting aside your own ideological bias as best you can).