Property, Ethics, and God

John R. Schneider (2005) encourages Christians to engage in consumer capitalism by extravagantly consuming. Schneiders position is in sharp contrast to church tradition. He justifies his position using selected texts from the Bible. In this article, I argue that a systematic examination of the entire Bible for passages dealing with property, ethics, and God does not support Schneiders views. Furthermore, I argue that Schneiders views require a strong notion of private property that gives me the right to use my property in any way I want. In contrast, I argue that the Bible contains a weak notion of private property and a strong notion of stewardship. This article does not directly deal with Schneiders 2007 article in the Journal of Markets & Morality; however, it does imply that an embrace of capitalism, as Schneiders collective writings define it, can be taken too far.Jonathan E. Leightner, "Property, Ethics, and God," Journal of Markets & Morality 12, no. 2 (Fall 2009): 337-35