Sharing Peace:
Class, Hierarchy, and Christian Social Order
Luke Bretherton
The holy kiss that Paul enjoins us to share with our Christian sisters and brothers was symbolic of the new family in the Christian church. Still class exists and it is important to discuss it in the context of the church, worship, and Christian ethics.
Class, Power, and Inequality. There will inevitably some hierarchy (class) and resulting inequality.
Class and Political Economy. Marxism and its influence on liberation theology and the reaction of others to it. The community of the church can be the place where oppression can be changed.
Worship as a Mode of Production, Distribution, and Consumption. Worship, and especially the passing of the peace, demonstrate both the class divisions inherent in the world and the classless nature of the body of Christ.
Class, Corporatism, and Covenant. In worship, the interests of the poor and the rich are not opposed to each other. Worship is the identification and pursuit of a truly common good.
Classlessness and the Peace of the Earthly City.