Schneider, The Good of Affluence

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John R. Schneider, The Good of Affluence: Seeking God in a Culture of Wealth. Eerdmans, 2002.

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LifeandLeadership.com Summary

While Ron Sider’s Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger and Jim Wallis’ Rediscovering Values will prick the conscience of wealthy Christians to be more sensitive to the poor, Schneider’s The Good of Affluence seeks to relieve affluent Christians from excessive guilt about their wealth. This is an extensive revision of Schneider’s earlier work, Godly Materialism: Rethinking Money and Possessions.

Schneider lays out his essential thesis that scripture makes room for the responsible possession of wealth, and that capitalism may indeed be the best system to secure prosperity for all. Schneider lies somewhere in between the “health-and-wealth gospel” or “prosperity gospel” that promises riches to those who are faithful, and others such as Ron Sider and Jim Wallis who convey a more perilous view of affluence.

Schneider surveys both Old and New Testaments on the subject of wealth. His emphasis throughout is on God’s delight in providing abundance for his people, from the “wealth as blessing” teachings of the Old Testament, to Jesus’ presence as the “Lord of Delight,” the harbinger of the abundant life and joyous participation in the messianic feast in the age to come. He looks at several of Jesus’ parables (e.g. The Rich Fool, the Rich Man and Lazarus, the Dishonest Manager) and other New Testament narratives regarding wealth, some that are prophetic, and others that are more liberating on the subject.

One may not agree with all of Schneider’s conclusions, but his work is substantive and responsible. He frequently challenges what he regards as overstatements and imbalance among writers such as activist Ron Sider and liberation theologian Gustavo Gutierrez. He offers a thoughtful polemic that is friendlier to wealth in the Christian lifestyle, but with no less sensitivity to the need of the affluent to share their wealth and demonstrate concern for economic injustice. It is probably wise to supplement both Schneider and Sider with more objective treatments of the subject such as Blomberg’s Neither Poverty Nor Riches, and to carefully avoid the temptation to justify one’s affluence while ignoring the less fortunate. The statistics on poverty and the damnable statistics on the paucity of charitable giving among Christians is indeed a cause for legitimate guilt, and this should not be forgotten.

From the Publisher

How should Christians live in a material world? Should personal guilt accompany financial success? Is wealth incompatible with true Christianity? In The Good of Affluence John R. Schneider reopens the debate over the proper Christian attitude toward money, arguing, ultimately, that Scripture does indeed provide support for the responsible possession of wealth.

This is a provocative book of Christian theology, written to help people seeking God in a culture that has grown from modern capitalism. By comparing classic Christian teaching on wealth with the realities of our modern economic world, Schneider challenges the common presumption that material affluence is inherently bad. Careful interpretation of Scripture narratives — creation, exodus, exile, and more — also shows that abundance is the condition that God envisions for all human beings and that faithful persons of wealth are part of this plan.

Schneider believes that the “wealth-as-blessing” themes of the Old Testament are not to be spiritualized and do not run contrary to New Testament teachings but provide exactly the frame of reference for the incarnate identity, life, and teaching of Jesus, who came to make real the messianic feast, both in this age and in the age to come. Through insightful engagement with the biblical text Schneider overturns some of the most cherished and unquestioned assumptions of influential Christian writers (particularly Ronald Sider) on modern capitalist affluence. Yet Schneider’s message is also finely balanced with the need for responsible Christian living. He offers rich Christians biblical affirmation but also challenges them to a life shaped by an uncommon sense of stewardship and compassion.

Incisive, thought provoking, and biblically grounded, The Good of Affluence is a superb resource for anyone — students, professors, businesspeople, general readers, discussion groups — wishing to grapple seriously with the subject of faith and wealth.

About the Author

John R. Schneider is Professor of Religion and Theology at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan; he was formerly professor of religious studies at Westmont College in California. He has written widely on the topic of Christianity and wealth and is the author of the books Philip Melanchthon’s Rhetorical Construal of Biblical Authority and Godly Materialism: Rethinking Money and Possessions.

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