ABSTRACT
Wealthy and powerful people tend to see helping others as an option, rather than understanding inequality as injustice. Using the definition of a good use of power as empowerment, this chapter considers what empowerment means for charity and justice. I begin by defining poverty, wealth, charity, and justice in the biblical and early church contexts and compare that to the common definitions now. Then I assess what we can shift to achieve a form of economic development supported by Christian theology. Not attending to the issue of power has led to a Christian focus on charity, understood as an optional giving of one’s own goods to another, rather than justice, which is working toward a fair share for all. Working together toward justice, as noted in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, as well as biblical scholarship and the Christian (Catholic and Protestant) tradition, understands that justice for all requires each of us to work toward justice. Charity is only possible after a just situation exists. Working toward justice involves living in communion, working toward the common good, building just relations, and understanding that we can each have life abundant if we each recognize the concept of “enough.”
