In Dynamics of Faith, Paul Tillich writes:
There is no criterion by which faith can be judged from outside the correlation of faith. But something else can happen: The faithful can ask himself or be asked by someone else whether the medium through which he experiences ultimate concern expresses real ultimacy. This question is the dynamic force in the history of religion,
revolutionizing the sacramental type of faith and driving faith beyond in different directions...The presupposition of this question is the inadequacy of the finite - even the most sacred piece of reality - to express what is of ultimate concern. The human mind, however, forgets this inadequacy and identifies the sacred object with the ultimate itself. The sacramental object is taken as holy in itself. Its character as the bearer of the holy, pointing beyond itself, disappears in the act of faith. The act of faith is no longer directed toward the ultimate self, but toward that which represents the ultimate...The transparence of faith is lost.
For some time, I have been persistently struggling with the co-existence of Christianity and Capitalism. More specifically, with the idea that most people consider America to be a Christian nation while also wholeheartedly endorsing Capitalism. What I find so problematic is that I do not believe I can imagine a more radical critique of Capitalism than what is found in the teachings of Jesus. I cannot imagine a more staunchly oppositional way of approaching a Capitalistic way of life than is offered in the gospels. Even if I concede the misinterpretation of certain passages by these Christo-Capitalists, the evidence of Jesus's teachings as an ethical system is overwhelmingly anti-Capitalism, and the fact that this is so vehemently denied is simply proof of the force and power of this pervasive Christo-Capitalist ideology in Western society.
Now, Christianity as an ideological system is certainly different from the Jesus one finds in the gospels, and it has been shown by many political scientists, philosophers, theologians, and even economists - Max Weber and Mark C. Taylor come immediately to mind - that Christianity actually allows for the effective functioning of Capitalism. Taylor even shows the sacrificial debt economy necessary for Capitalism to function as having its roots in religious practices.
This is, of course, supported by Tillich's discussion of faith whereby Capitalism - or in his words nationalism - is itself a faith in as much as money (perhaps represented more mystically as $) becomes ultimate concern. And although one could argue that Capitalism is a distortion of faith because it takes the sacred object for the holy itself, money is increasingly dis-embodied. Captial is more abstract. Numbers exist only in cyberspace flying at hyper-speed across digital landscapes managed by stockbroker priests (of course one could argue that with the advent of the Internet and the ability for the "layperson" to buy and trade their own stocks, a type of "Protestant" revolution has occurred).
At any rate, it seems that Capitalism is becoming more and more like what Tillich describes as a mystical faith - "Mystical faith is the end of a long way from the most concrete forms of faith to the point in which all concreteness disappears in the abyss of pure divinity" - which often creates an ecstatic experience. Although his definition of "divinity" here is ambiguous, one could suggest that the purer divinity of Capitalism is attained only through the actual disappearance of money and the movement toward the transparence of Capital. One may forget that money is only the sacred object pointing to the holy and mistake it for the holy itself, but with Capital, the forgetting ceases to matter because one becomes wrapped up in the ecstasy of transparence (and transcendence).
But all theoretical issues aside...all systems aside...the absolute (or fundamental) fantasy that Jesus's teachings can co-exist within a Capitalistic society is untenable at best and horrific at worst. The melding of Christianity and Capitalism into the monstrosity Christo-Capitalism is a nightmarish, traumatic surreality from which I am unable to wake. I simply cannot reconcile the two as being considered "American" (not just for economic reasons). My question may be, then, how and why does this paradox continue?
I must admit, however, it is a true and amazing achievement that we have been able to construct such an intricately, almost crystalline in its beauty, woven and complex ideological system that allows for the existence of Christo-Capitalism as just American "common sense." The ways we approach the world from a Christo-Capitalistic perspective and within a faith of/in Capital is invisible. It is pervasive. It is given. It is all powerful and always present. It is always on our minds and in our hearts. It guides all of our choices and decisions. It is what rules nations and drives the global community. It is what we worship and devote our lives to. It is what we pursue. It is what we sacrifice for and sacrifice to. We are its disciples. How do we break this chain of existence?
