Emergence of an Economy of Communion
* Book: New Financial Horizons: The Emergence of an Economy of Communion. Lorna Gold. New City Press, 2010.
Description
John L. Allen Jr.
'Gold examines the origins and substance of a promising alternative to the current globalized economy. During a 1991 trip to Brazil, Chiara Lubich challenged Focolare members to launch businesses that could create jobs and opportunities. Almost twenty years later, Benedict XVI cited the Economy of Communion in Caritas in Veritate as a promising form of intermediate activity between for-profit business and classic non-profit institutions."
Contents
1. In Search of a New Economic Vision
2. A Global Community: The Focolare Movement
3. An Alternative Economic Vision
- The “Communion of Goods”
- Redistribution in the Trent Community
- A “Culture of Giving”
- A New Economic Ethic
- Economic Ethic of the Focolare
4. The Evolution of the Economy of Communion
- Globalization and the “Communion of Goods”
- How EOC Profits are Shared
- Local-Global Distribution Networks
- Direct Assistance to those in Need
5. EOC Ventures around the World
6. Spirituality and the Economy of Communion Businesses
7. Transforming Business Space
- The Structure of Corporate Ownership
- Remaking the Role of Shareholders
8. Making Space for Communion: Local — Global Networks
9. Rethinking “Rational Economic Man”: Lessons from the EOC
10. Challenging Perceptions of Justice: The Needs of “Distant Strangers”
- Egalitarianism, Impartiality and the EOC
Review
Margaret D’Anieri:
"In her introduction, author Lorna Gold writes:
- The end of the twentieth century was marked by the so-called “triumph of capitalism” and the failure of the socialism regimes in Eastern Europe. It was accompanied by a wave of optimism that the “evils” of communism could be overcome by the forces of the free market… just two decades on … the world appeared a very different place. A world of prosperity delivered by free market globalization seemed like a distant dream. All over the world, governments were forced to step in to shore up banks, the stalwarts of market capitalism. Massive inequalities in opportunity remain the norm. Environmental destruction threatens. A series of truly global crises challenges us to think carefully about the assumptions on which economy and society is based.
She goes on, in the introduction, to provide a thorough and equally readable account of the current interlinked situations of global inequality (Europeans and Americans spend over $1 billion a month on pet food, while over 850 million people experience chronic hunger), political instability, and environmental threats. She suggests that an economic Darwinism, in which the only the fittest survive, has become the prevailing doctrine; she quotes influential economist Milton Friedman as referring explicitly to the “economic elimination of the unfit”.
There are responses at the margins of this worldview such as the fair trade movement, the locavore movement and the 3/50 Project. Gold’s book introduces us to another: the “Economy of Communion” (EOC), based on a “culture of giving” and rooted in Trinitarian theology. The grounding of the EOC is that humans find ultimate fulfillment in communion with others and not in individual wealth maximization.
...
he book describes not “an economy of communion” as some type of general movement, but the description of one particular organization called the Economy of Communion (EOC), rooted in the Roman Catholic Church. Her case study is of the two largest manifestations of the EOC, in Italy and Brazil, not the United States and Brazil as the back cover states.
The EOC is a network of businesses that emerged out of a continuing movement called Focolare, the Italian word for hearth. The movement began in Trent, Italy, during World War II, with the “high ideal” of unity and living according to the golden rule. The image of hearth suggests warmth, connection, storytelling, and relationship, and the movement came to life based largely on the charism of its founder, Chiara Lubich, who died in 2008. The movement spread to Brazil, where EOC businesses are most prevalent and most engaged in working out how to prosper economically while being committed to sharing profits with the poor, and working out how to bring trust and love into relationships with employees, customers, and even with the government and taxing authorities that have a culture of bribery. It should be noted that one of the EOC businesses is the publisher of this book.
Gold does a good job of anticipating the reader’s questions, and of delving into the intersections of theology, economy, and sociology among others." (http://erb.kingdomnow.org/review-new-financial-horizons-by-lorna-gold-vol-4-15-5/)
About the Author
'Lorna Gold currently works as Policy and Advocacy Manager with the Irish Catholic Agency for International Development, Trócaire. Before joining Trócaire, she received a Ph.D. in Economic Geography from the University of Glasgow and worked in the Department of Politics in the University of York. She writes extensively on global economic and social development, with a particular focus on the contribution of Christian social thought in addressing the challenges of ethical globalization."