Pharaoh’s Economy Today

A reader sent me a link to a talk by Walter Brueggeman called Pharaoh’s Economy Today. I read Brueggeman’s book called Prophetic Imagination quite a few years ago, but I realised after listening to this talk that I did not fully understand it. I made the following notes.

The Roman Empire was a predatory system. In the New Testament, Jesus’ movement was the response of a neighbourly economy to the predation of Rome with which some of the Jews had colluded.

We have read the New Testament badly when we have thought that it has to do with private sin and going to heaven. The New Testament is essentially about a neighbourhood alternative in economics.

Jesus was executed by Rome, because the empire was scared to death of neighbourly economics.

I was intrigued by these words because my book called God’s Economy is a detailed description of how a neighbourly economy functions. More here.