ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ways in which the Christian gospels use property crime as a means of redirecting our love away from transitory things and towards God and neighbour. According to St Augustine, all of creation is a system of signification. All created things are signs that point to God, and we are to love them only in relation to Him. We sin when we treat the sign as the thing it signifies, loving or worshiping it for its own sake. This chapter shows how the gospels treat property as a failed sign – that is, as a rival for our love and an obstacle to our relationship with God and each other. It then illustrates how the gospels use the example of property crime to restore the signifying function of property by showing that (1) worldly goods are fleeting; (2) love of worldly goods can lead to rebellion against God; (3) God can break through our selfish self-love, sometimes violently, to warn or judge; (4) caring for victims of property crime can restore our capacity to love our neighbours; and (5) forgiveness and reconciliation are always open to those who seek them.
