Precious and Precarious Life: Exploring Diaconal Economics

Abstract

In view of recent concrete challenges and creative initiatives arising in diaconal work related to economics and economic structures, this article takes human precariousness as its point of departure for reflecting on what might be seen as “diaconal economics.” I suggest a hermeneutical understanding of diaconia that makes it possible to distinguish between “explicit” and “implicit” diaconal practices, relating recent thinking on precariousness and precarity in the fields of political philosophy (Judith Butler) and economy (Guy Standing) to contemporary theological criticism of the global economic system (e.g., by Pope Francis, Daniel M. Bell, and William T. Cavanaugh). While appreciating the ethical commitment and theological relevance of such a critique, I draw on the contribution of development economists Banerjee and Duflo to suggest that diaconal economics should resist common tendencies toward very general and abstract approaches as well as proposals that are overly optimistic about the critical potential of explicitly faith-based or Christian alternative practices. But by recognizing the vital role of religiosity in situations of precarity (cf. Norris and Inglehart), I also suggest that the resources of Christian faith may be mobilized in multiple ways to foster contextualized and pluriform initiatives that serve to reform economic structures from the bottom up. They may provide such practices with motivation and direction in ways that may be seen as both explicitly and implicitly diaconal in nature.

Keywords

• diaconal practice and economy
• theology and economics
• precariat
• precariousness
• vulnerability