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Christians and the development of society.
Thursday, May 7, 2009. We have talked about values yesterday. We have discovered that Jesus sets values, that values are given by the creator to all humans. This is reflected in many constitutions of states and kingdoms: Human dignity is inviolable.
What can be the role of christian faith for the development of society? Today all western societies are pluralistic. You find here a large number of different faiths and beliefs. Christian faith is just one among others. Sometimes there are many people who call themselves christian, sometimes christians are a minority. What can be the role of faith in such pluralistic societies?
First, we need to clearly see that faith does not provide definite answers for many social questions. Most organizational structures of history have advantages and disadvantages. They are temporary structures with a particular history, which have evolved and will change. This is true for socialism as well as for capitalistic systems, for the european type of democracies as well as for many other systems.
Instead of definite answers christian faith can guide our thoughts and discussion and make a crucial input to the search for improvement and change. For example, the idea of value which is inherent in every human will lead us to balance market driven evaluations with other mechanisms. Here, we can create a space for the individual to prosper, to make its own decisions, to gain freedom which is not destroyed immediately by the pressure of omnipresent competition where the winner takes it all. [R.W.E.P., jesusnetwork.eu]