The Wages of Peace: How to Confront Economic Inequality and Love Your Neighbor Well
Ebook
It’s getting harder and harder to get by.
Inflation. Stagnant wages. Spiraling costs of living. Even in the world’s wealthiest nation, it is too hard to earn enough money to thrive without a tremendous amount of privilege or luck. When so many people are struggling, what can we do?
The Wages of Peace offers aspiring economic peacemakers an empathetic, informed perspective on today’s economy and the difficulty of getting by. Reporting back from his work in community development, Brian Humphreys unpacks the core needs of low-income households and communities, starting with living-wage jobs. He then offers practical steps to address complex socioeconomic challenges and become equipped to talk about money, work, and well-being. This includes confronting where our theologies of wealth and work have come up short and naming that when we put profits over people, we pay the price in despair and violence.
Jesus calls us to seek shalom in the marketplace and the neighborhood. It’s time to dismantle inequality and work for an equitable peace.
1 Blessed Peacemakers2 Devoured Houses
3 The Golden Calf Bull
4 The Planks in Our Eyes
5 Local Economic Peacemaking
6 Complementary Peacemaking Strategies
7 Policies for Peacemaking
8 Resilient Peacemakers
9 Greater Things
Notes
The Author
“Struggling to make ends meet in today’s economy? You’re not alone. In The Wages of Peace, Brian Humphreys offers a compassionate yet clear-eyed look at the complex challenges faced by low-income communities, the dangers of flawed theologies in facing these challenges, and a practical road map for a better future. This book is a rallying cry for the church to pursue true shalom by biblically reframing assumptions about wealth and work, by dismantling systemic barriers, and by activating economic equity for all, one living-wage job and empowered voice at a time.”
“The Wages of Peace serves as an exemplary practical theological guide for Christians deeply concerned with one of the most pressing socioeconomic injustices of our time—pervasive and escalating economic inequality. Humphreys challenges his readers to transition from mere peacekeepers to active peacemakers. He compellingly argues that those committed to the biblical commandments of loving God and their neighbors are naturally called to economic peacemaking. The book’s strength lies in its practicality; it provides readers with valuable guidelines for community engagement. These include personal testimonies, problem-solving strategies, and inspirational stories, all presented without casting judgment on any parties or opponents. An essential read for anyone earnestly committed to promoting economic justice and peace in our world.”
“So often our doctrines fit into neat and tidy boxes of our own making, but Brian Humphreys demonstrates in The Wages of Peace that sometimes the ideas of one category can, and in fact should, interact with others. This practical book offers key insights into how the concept of peace can dramatically influence how we think about economics, poverty, and development. This simple but powerful idea has far-reaching and inspirational implications, and provides not only food for thought but real possibilities and models for how to impact communities.”
“In one short book, Brian Humphreys manages the incredible feat of defining and explaining nearly every challenge I have learned in fifteen years of nonprofit work. With indisputable clarity, Humphreys walks readers briskly through the daily economic challenges of millions of Americans. He reorients peacemaking from the usual conversations about war-making into the undeniably practical battleground of daily existence in a capitalist system run amok. Without seeking to find the villain to blame, he firmly (but also gently) lays out an unassailable indictment on the most local warfare we ignore: the third Great War for America is the one we have been inflicting upon each other with unrelenting violence. And we are culpable.
“The Wages of Peace lays out the problems, connects to common (mis)conceptions about what Scripture says, and invites us to active, solution-focused conversation. Using a format that invites the reader to truth but outlines how readers can discuss solutions, Humphreys lays out a process for changing our conversations together.”
- Title: The Wages of Peace: How to Confront Economic Inequality and Love Your Neighbor Well
- Authors: Brian Humphreys, Liz Theoharis
- Publisher: Herald Press
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781513813783, 9781513813769, 1513813765, 1513813781
- Resource ID: LLS:9781513813783
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-11-22T03:37:39Z
Brian Humphreys is a community economic development professional who is passionate about enhancing local churches’ capacity to love their neighbors. He first trained to be a missionary pilot, but soon became aware of the growing struggle for households to attain living-wage jobs. He is both an academic and a practitioner, executing projects in the community while training the next generation of Christian leaders and servants. Brian cares deeply about the intersection of Christian peacemaking and the global challenge of economic inequality. He is the director and chair of the School of Global Studies at Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington.