Human development: a concern of theology by Gnana Robinson

Christian theology and development - Ecumenical Diakonia: New Challenges, New Responses
Ecumenical Review, The, July, 1994 by Gnana Robinson


Theology, the logos about God -- the reason, knowledge and understanding of the being of God and his activities -- has to do with the whole of creation, because Christians believe that the God who created order out of disorder created the universe with a purpose, and this purpose has to do with the welfare of human beings.



The biblical accounts of creation and of God's activities leave us in no doubt that God's concern in creation is focused primarily on the human being -- male and female: "So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he creted them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth" (Genesis 1:27-28). The Psalmist, who reflects on the Genesis account of creation, also affirms that the humans were created above the rest of creation and that all other created works were meant to serve their needs: "You have made them a little lower than God [or: than the divine beings] and crowned them with glory and honour. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you put all things under their feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas" (Psalm 8:5-8). This, however, does not mean that the human is given the licence to plunder and exploit nature; responsible stewardship in the use of nature is expected of all.

The God who is revealed in and through the Bible is a God who acts in history; and God's acts in history have always been in relation to humans, beginning with Adam and Eve, as described in the story of Paradise. The rest of the living world -- animals, birds and plants, and the elements of the universe -- are meant to meet the needs of humans in all places at all times, not just the needs of some selected races or groups at some particular point in history.

When we come to the New Testament, the focus of Jesus' mission is also the human being. The "Son of Man" came to seek and save the lost. Over one human being saved, there is great joy in heaven. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, came that all his sheep may have life, and have it abundantly (John 10:10). The saving and protecting of the life of the human was the measuring rod or criterion for all of Jesus' activities. He subjected his own religion, Judaism, to scrutiny using this criterion. When there was a controversy over the healing of a sick man on the sabbath, Jesus raised the question, "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?" When he received no answer, he went ahead and healed the sick person on the sabbath day (Mark 3:4-5). Jesus subjected religion -- and for that matter any system or ideology -- to the welfare of the human: "The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath" (Mark 2:27).

Thus we see that the focus of God's concern is the holistic development of the human, the holistic development of every human person in the total human community, including both present and future generations. Any development discussion must therefore take into account both ecological and futuristic concerns.

Modern development theories

Modern discussions on development started at the end of the second world war, drawing on the theories of Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus.(1) Development was understood in terms of "national growth" and "per-capita income",(2) and the concepts of development and economic growth were considered to be synonymous.

Under economic growth, different shades of development theories could be identified. One is the pyramid or "Taj Mahal" type of economic growth, which perpetuates the pattern of dominance and dependence which characterized colonialism and now neo-colonialism. A second image is that of the ladder -- a type of development which suggests that the under-developed, poor countries must chase after the so-called developed, rich countries, imitating their patterns of development and adopting their values and style of life with a view to "catching up" with them. Those who are unable to catch up are left behind, destined to remain poor forever. A third symbol is that of the life-boat. Here the rich nations of the world are to pick up, by a careful process of selection, on their own terms and according to their own criteria, those who can be saved (developed), leaving behind the hopelessly poor as beyond salvation. A fourth image of economic development is that of everyone trying to grab the largest piece of the development pie. This type of development is obsessed with ever-increasing production and overlooks the need for just distribution and the limitations of the earth's resources. As Somen Dhas from India rightly points out, "this is the kind of thinking and attitude that has created a consumer society which is compulsive and conspicuous in character. Such a system aggravates the acquisitive and aggressive instincts of people."(3)

Modern development is based on modern technology, which is capital-intensive. It gravitates towards the organized urban sector to the near exclusion of the traditional, rural agricultural sector. The costs which the people pay for such development are high. In the personal and social realms, life becomes fragmented and dehumanized. Extreme individualism increases and the sense of wholeness is lost. The marginalization of some people in society becomes normal. The intrinsic value of the human person is lost; instead, people are regarded for their "cash value". If they are not able to contribute to the production process, by input of either capital or labour, they are pushed aside. In the economic realm, this type of development leads to unemployment, under-employment and foreign debts. Rather than mobilizing the production potential of their people, poor nations import foreign know-how and technology, exhausting national resources and building up foreign debts. Since this type of development is geared to maximum profit in the shortest time, it is accompanied by enormous waste, leading to severe ecological and environmental damage.(4)



Development theories which are based merely on economic growth have to be subjected to criticism by Christian theology, which is, as we have seen, concerned with the development of all people, all ethnic communities -- black, white, brown and yellow, high-caste and low-caste, male and female. Holistic development focuses on the material, physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual needs of every person in the community, not only the present generation but also future generations. Stewardship of the resources of nature therefore becomes very important. Waste has to be avoided; and nothing should be done that will disturb the ecological balance of nature. Thus, as the eminent Indian Christian economist C.T. Kurien notes, "Development is complex as life...All the ingredients of life find reflection the moment we talk about development -- economics, sociology, religion, ethics -- all these and more will come into account; and hence it is indeed a very complex issue."(5)

Just relations: the focus of development

If holistic development of the human community is the focus of Christian theology, "justice" is the means of achieving that goal. "Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream," says God (Amos 5:24). Development is a matter of human relations, and justice, according to the Bible, is a relational concept which raises the question of right relationship with God and with God's people. Wherever Old Testament prophets found irregularities in the society, wherever they found abnormal relations such as dominance, oppression and exploitation, they immediately raised the question of justice. "Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow," says Isaiah (1:17). "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?", says Micah (6:8).

The biblical concept of "covenant" was meant to safeguard right relations with God and with fellow human beings. Creation has been seen as the basis for such a right relationship among fellow human beings. Thus the prophet Malachi asks, "Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?" (2:10). The fact that all human beings are created by one God and that this God, like a parent, cares for the welfare of all demands of all people that they relate to one another as brothers and sisters. Tyre was condemned for not honouring the covenant of kinship in selling its captives to Edom (Amos 1:9). According to the prophets in the Old Testament, unjust relations are the root causes for the disparties and inequalities in the society, and therefore they call the people to set right their relations with one another. The same principle holds good for our discussions of development today.


It is no longer growth but "distributive justice" that has become the centre of discussion in development debates today. Thus, "development becomes liberation and the narrow of limited concern for development will have to be enlarged to take into account liberation in the economic sense, the social sense and the spiritual sense".(6) According to M.M. Thomas, "true development is development of people, the release of people from their enslaved conditions so that they can have the rightful dignity of participating in the process of making decisions which affect their life and labour."(7) Therefore he rejects the Taj Mahal or pyramid concept of development, which is based on brutalizing exploitation and forced labour.

Today we talk of North-South and First World-Third World relationships. Here again it is the question of justice we are concerned with. How far are these relationships just politically, economically and culturally? In every respect we see hegemony, dominance and exploitation from the side of the rich. Countries in the South which have suffered heavily under colonialism now suffer under neo-colonialism. The principle that the rich and the powerful dictate and dominate has characterized such relationships, and the question of justice has never been taken seriously. It is therefore important that the question of distributive justice is raised at all levels of our development discussions, both globally and locally.

Christian theology demands that all people enjoy the God-given blessings of creation equally, because all are created in the image of God and all are given the privilege of enjoying this creation equally. The biblical account of the Fall holds that the tension in the human's relationship with fellow human beings and with the animal world and nature result from the human's marred relationship with God. The right relationship with God, the right relationship with fellow human beings and the right relationship with nature all belong together. The right relationship with God is basic to all other just relationships -- just human relationships as well as just relationships to nature -- and these just relationships are the integral part of holistic development. Removal of unjust conditions and unjust structures in the relationships between countries and peoples is therefore basic to any process of development.

Self-reliance as the goal of development

Describing the ideal state of life under messianic rule, the prophet Micah speaks of all humans sitting under their own vines and their own fig trees, "and no one shall make them afraid" (4:4). The idea of "dependence" is alien to the biblical understanding of human development, because dependence implies inequality, which is against the will of God. The Old Testament prophets condemn those people who use unjust means to deprive people of their freedom and force them to become dependent on others (cf. Amos 8:4-6; Micah 2:2). Inter-dependence is an essential aspect of human life; because God has intended humans to live in community, not in isolation (Genesis 2:18).


The New Testament also speaks for the self-reliant development of every human being. If we analyze the accounts of the healing miracles of Jesus, we see that they were meant to restore the sick and the suffering to normal humanity so that they might live as free people. He healed the disabled and the lepers in order to reintegrate them into society. The miracle performed by Peter and John at one of the gates of the temple in Jerusalem points to the same purpose. Peter says to the man born lame, "I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk" (Acts 3:6). Peter removes the condition which was responsible for the man's dependency on others; he can now stand on his own feet and walk. Development is thus essentially the removal of the conditions of dependency on others.

In the Eurocentric, growth-oriented understanding of development, unjust relations have created conditions of dependency. Under-development is not the original condition of any society, as some proponents of growth-oriented development theories would have us believe. Under-development is the condition created by the growthoriented, exploitative, capitalistic development process. As an example of this, A.G. Frank points to the British de-industrialization in India, the destructive effects of the slave trade on African societies and the obliteration of the Indian civilization in Central and South America.(8) As Theotonio Dos Santos of Brazil points out, dependence is "a situation in which the economy of certain countries is conditioned by the development and expansion of another economy to which the former is subjected".(9) According to Dos Santos, "the concept of 'dependence' cannot be formulated outside the boundaries of the theory of imperialism, but should be seen as a complement to the term imperialism, since 'dependency' is the internal face of imperialism."(10) Factors that contribute to the condition of dependency have therefore to be resisted and countered.

The Cocoyoc Declaration, adopted by a UN symposium in Mexico in 1974, presents a development strategy of self-reliance: "We believe that one basic strategy of development will have to be increased national self-reliance. It does not mean autarchy. It implies benefits from trade and co-operation and a fairer redistribution of resources satisfying basic needs. It does mean self-confidence, reliance primarily on one's own resources, human and natural, and the capacity for autonomous goal-setting and decision-making. It excludes dependence on outside influences and powers that can be converted into political pressure."(11) Genuine development should be a socioeconomic and political process in which all people who produce goods and render services become aware of the nature of existing power-structures, structures of dominance, and try to change it by creating "a countervailing power of the masses, thereby unleashing the full productive power of the people for total human development".(12)

Two principles of authentic development, according to Gandhi, were self-reliance (swadeshi) and welfare to all (sarvodaya), and here Gandhi has drawn much from the teachings of Jesus. By contrast, the world in which we live today is one of great disparities. Much of the world's population lives in abject poverty, and the gap between rich and poor widens day by day. At the international level a few rich countries continue to increase their dominance over the poor countries, thus increasing dependency; at the national level poor and marginalized people, such as the aboriginals and the dalits in India, are dominated and exploited by the rich in their own country. In such a situation, all those who participate in development activities have to work towards removing the shackles of dominance by the rich and contributing to the self-reliance of the poor and the marginalized. The have to work towards creating a condition in which every human sits under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall make them afraid. This is what holistic development involves.



NOTES

(1)Maguns Blomstrom and Bjorn Hettne, Development Theory in Transition: The Dependency Debate and Beyond, London, Zed Books, 1988, p.8.

(2)C.T. Kurien, "Widening our Perspective on Development", Bangalore Theological Forum, July-September 1987, p.135.

(3)Somen Dhas, "A Theological-Ethical Critique of Modern Development", Bangalore Theological Forum, July-September 1987, pp.199-202.

(4)Ibid., pp.202-204.

(5)Loc. cit., p.138.

(6)Ibid., p.137.

(7)M.M. Thomas, Response to Tyranny, New Delhi, Forum for Christian Concern for People's Struggle, p.88.

(8)Cited by Blomstrom and Hettne, op. cit., p.52.

(9)Ibid., p.65.

(10)Ibid., p.66.

(11)Ibid., p.106.

(12)Jose George, "Organization and Mobilization of Peasants and Agricultural Labourers in Kerala: An Alternative Development Strategy", Bangalore Theological Forum, July-September 1987, p.162.

COPYRIGHT 1994 World Council of Churches
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group

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