Sin, Evil, and Global Inequality/ies

Abstract

This distinction between global inequality/ies and poverty represents a challenge for Christian ethics because, while Christianity has long been concerned about poverty and affirmed God’s bias to the poor, inequality has received far less attention. This essay argues that the Christian ethics should (1) reconceive extreme global inequality/ies as symptoms, and the condition, of sin; (2) clarify the moral arguments about what is wrong with inequality/ies; (3) resist any reduction of the ethical challenges to equality as an abstract or arithmetical principle; (4) work toward a systems approach to sin better able to address a finance climate of complexity and uncertainty, connections, processes, and interdependency.