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Having: Property and Possession in Religious and Social Life

Anglican Theological Review, Fall 2005 by Luke, Iain

Having: Property and Possession in Religious and Social Life. Edited by William Schweiker and Charles Mathewes. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004. ix + 415 pp. $36.00 (paper).

Having is both a difficult concept and a difficult book. As a book, it is the product of a scholars' forum engaged in a study of "property, possession and the theology of culture." Its contributors range over a variety of disciplines, mainly in the U.S. with a small European contingent. Their history together holds out a promise that remains largely unfulfilled: while many of the essays reference one another, and the interdisciplinary nature of the topic is treated seriously, there is no sense of convergence or consensus. At best, the volume represents a kind of interim report, the initial fruits of collaboration on which future conclusions might be based.

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This assessment is confirmed by evidence of a very light editorial hand. The editors are themselves participants and clearly appreciate the benefits of the forum strategy, but lack the distance to convey those benefits to the reader. Their introduction and artificial section titles betray the challenge of bringing order to the diverse contributions of their fellows: the section "Biblical Trajectories," for example, includes an otherwise orphaned essay on what modernity means by "having faith," in which Scripture is barely referenced. There is no concluding reflection, presumably for the same reason; also lacking are an index and any biographical material on the authors, but on the positive side the book ends with an extended and helpful bibliography.

Viewed more hopefully, this project succeeds to the extent that it demonstrates the elusiveness of the idea which is its focus: having, possession. At the very least there are three communities of discourse about the concept which struggle with one another. Two of them, theologians and economists, cherish a long-standing grudge, and any conversation is worth holding in which they can engage in mutual reflection and self-critique. While the bias in Having is towards transforming economistic thinking, one very strong essay by economist Deirdre McCloskey challenges the perception that her subject necessarily proceeds in a moral vacuum.

The point of contact between those two schools, though, comes through their respective interaction with the third element, the students of culture. While property may have (or lack) value in a religious or monetary sense, that valuation subsists in the cultural artifact which is possession. Perhaps the strongest point of this collection is its illumination of how the way we "have" reflects our understanding of who we "are." This insight draws together many otherwise disparate contributions: the biblical-theological element through, for example, David Klemm's concept of "material grace" or Charles Mathewes's defense of Augustine's "using the world"; the economists through McCloskey's thesis that "markets live in communities of virtue" (p. 324); and the culturists through Günter Thomas's exciting analysis of the new market in human attention.

Even so, there are uneven moments. Several authors uphold the different cultural lenses of other places and times, but Claudia Camp's attempt to trace the rhetoric of shame from Sirach to Esquire magazine (p. 84) is a letdown. So is the suggestion that people make purchases "not for merely economic reasons but . . . to better their life" (Klamer, p. 339), an indication that not all members of the forum see economics as redeemable. But in its flaws just as much as in its strengths, this book provides a worthwhile overview of how different, and limited, disciplinary perspectives can begin to build up a joint description of that elephantine phenomenon which is "having."

IAIN LUKE

St. John's College

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Copyright Anglican Theological Review, Inc. Fall 2005
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved

Having: Property and Possession in Religious and Social Life

Anglican Theological Review, Fall 2005 by Luke, Iain

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