One of best essays I read in 2008 was Wendell Berry’s article for the May issue of Harper’s Magazine: “Faustian Economics: Hell Hath No Limits.” I recently returned to this article in light of the dramatic economic downturn since its original publication only 10 months ago. It is worth re-reading: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/05/0082022
The central thesis of Berry’s article is as old as Adam and Eve and certainly as relevant: humanity’s refusal to accept our finite nature as a God-given aspect of our creation rather than as burdensome restraint. In other words, Berry is fundamentally writing about Original Sin – our disordered love of that which is not to be loved: freedom from creaturely constraint. Berry has long asserted that America’s rampant consumerist culture is rooted in this fundamental human bent.
“In keeping with our unrestrained consumptiveness, the commonly accepted basis of our economy is the supposed possibility of limitless growth, limitless wants, limitless wealth, limitless natural resources, limitless energy, and limitless debt. The idea of a limitless economy implies and requires a doctrine of general human limitlessness: all are entitled to pursue without limit whatever they conceive as desirable….”
But the good news for Berry is also the Good News. In the acceptance of our limited nature, we come to know ourselves as we really are, knowing humility, knowing our finitude, knowing our dependence on one another, and knowing utterly our need for the only One who is truly limitless: “This constraint, however, is not the condemnation it may seem. On the contrary, it returns us to our real condition and to our human heritage, from which our self-definition as limitless animals has for too long cut us off. Every cultural and religious tradition that I know about, while fully acknowledging our animal nature, defines us specifically as humans—that is, as animals (if the word still applies) capable of living not only within natural limits but also within cultural limits, self-imposed. As earthly creatures, we live, because we must, within natural limits, which we may describe by such names as ‘earth’ or ‘ecosystem’ or ‘watershed’ or ‘place.’ But as humans, we may elect to respond to this necessary placement by the self-restraints implied in neighborliness, stewardship, thrift, temperance, generosity, care, kindness, friendship, loyalty, and love.”
Yesterday, a parishioner and I were ruminating on the profound stresses and strains many of us feel as a result of our economic recession. She commented that perhaps the church was being presented a golden opportunity to remind people that this time, stripped of the illusion of limitless growth and prosperity, can draw us into deeper consideration of our true spiritual needs and priorities. Yes. I am grateful that Wendell Berry has been doing that for a long time. (2/14/09)