Thursday in the Fourth Week of Lent: Reforming and Redeeming Colonialist Economies

Read:  Revelation 18:1-3




This vision of the fall of Rome, the new “Babylon,” looks to the judgment of this civilization, in its political rulers, its merchants, its shipmasters, and seafarers. The link between political rule and economics is illustrated here as is the dependence of Rome on slavery and trade. The Roman Empire was a global economy linked together by imperial rule and control of Mediterranean trade routes. It was also a colonial economy in that resources and goods and wealth moved to the politically dominant center, often in the form of tribute. The vision looks to the overthrow of this system yet also foretells redemption in Revelation 21:22-27. People will bring into the New Jerusalem “the glory and the honor of the nations”—a hint at the redemption of the political and economic order.

How can Christians act faithfully within our own global economy? Is it possible to participate without being implicated? Judgment leads to redemption, so what might the redemption of the global economic order look like?



 (The Book of Common Prayer, p. 825)


John Bauerschmidt serves as the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee.