Lets say "Grace"!!!

If there is such a thing as the "invisible hand", I would think it's the aggressiveness of evil as compared to virtue. Good people do not aggressively seek out the ruin of people nor create systems of exclusion.

In climate change we have used the term "operationalizing" the response - that is to build upon best practices and to aggressively put them into practice. However, the motivation for building peaceful systems lacks heart. At least in the public eye and mainstream aspect of communication.

Even if you are Christian, it may be difficult to recognize the difficulty the Church had in creating a system of belief that balances all aspects of a heavy handed economic system. It's not a system directly opposed to a monetary system but if anything - using words of theology - "it fulfills the system”. The system itself is not necessarily corrupt but for the outcomes to be balanced there needs to be yet another "invisible hand."

In this case it was not a government but an Aboriginal tribal belief system that included a social structure based on ritual and strong supporting verbal and written practices. The new "rituals" resulting from the life and death of Christ was three fold: forgiveness of sins, acts of grace, and a completed since of salvation.

There IS a reason why economics is so structured around dept and profit: because the vision of the "New Jerusalem" is based on a pure Christian structure of the Church's theology of debt, forgiveness and grace. If there was ever a social balance to the metaphysics of money (economics) it would have to be the historical Christian concept of "Grace" and the invisible hand of its benefits.

Grace in Christianity

In Western Christian theology grace has been defined, not as a created substance of any kind, but as "the love and mercy given to us By God because God desires us to have it, not because of anything we have done to earn it", "the condescension or benevolence shown by God toward the human race". It is understood by Christians to be a spontaneous gift from God to people "generous, free and totally unexpected and undeserved" – that takes the form of divine favor, love, clemency, and a share in the divine life of God. - Wikipedia

The total nemesis of money and personal profit.

What made early Christianity a powerful balancing force is that a system of grace was defined and still exists in the Catholic faith - it recognizes suffering and the grace accumulated by its members and saint's. The Church itself acts as the system and dispenses "grace" through its actions as well as it's ceremonies. What the original Protestant reformer's protested was the Church's use of Indulgence's.

Indulgence

...an indulgence is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins which may reduce either or both of the penance required after a sin has been forgiven, or after death, the temporal punishment, in the state or process of purification called Purgatory. - Wikipedia

In the history of the Church the dept of sin was managed through ritual practices and by dispensing "grace". In the practice of forgiving the dept of sin it was an action that was managed through the ritual practices of the Church but also as an individual practice in its social teachings and example. Most of the time this context is considered "salvation" and it's somewhat muddled by history.

"In recent times, the Church has recognized that its teaching about the necessity of the Catholic Church for salvation has been widely misunderstood, so it has "re-formulated" this teaching in a positive way. Here is how the Catechism of the Catholic Church begins to address this topic: "How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? Reformulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body" (CCC 846).

In keeping with the Church’s current spirit of ecumenism, this positive reformulation comes across less harshly than previous negative formulations. Even so, it remains quite controversial. So, let’s see how this new formulation squares with Scripture." - http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/what-no-salvation-outside-the-church-means

- Christ is the head of the Church.
- The church is his body.
- Grace is dispensed through the body.
- God does not condemn anyone.
- Grace comes from the acts of Christ.

Although many argue that access to grace is limited by the theology the opposite is true - everyone has access but not everyone "drinks this water." What I would tell you is this - find the well that contains this water and drink it daily - never stop. Offer it to everyone you meet including your enemies. While you may not have the means to give everyone you meet money - Grace is Free because it comes from God. Or if your an atheist - it comes from the very foundation of life itself and is totally a human in devoir.

Transubstantiation

For a while now I've been interested in the social history that surrounds the divergence of Christianity. Especially the more famous occurrence that resulted in the Protestant Reformation. One of the very first questions that formed - was that the first time in history? The resulting Protestant Reformation began with disagreements in doctrine especially those surrounding the Sacrament of the Eucharist. A Sacrament in this context is a ritual believed as an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual divine grace with the Eucharist being specifically instituted by Christ at the Last Supper.

The Reformation itself is considered beginning with Martin Luther, a German Augustinian monk, posting his 95 theses on a church door at the university town of Wittenberg. However, even this wasn't the first disagreement. Over the centuries there had been many that resulted in church councils that desired simplification. However, the political context of this church battle was based on the emergence of the middle class and thriving cities in what is now known as Italy. These new medieval cities began focusing on trade allowing for the growth of towns and leisure time. Artisans and merchants, developed their own associations, such as the Guild of Merchants, to protect their interests and help fight against the feudal system. This was done in the context of Church belief and structure.

Church symbolism and ritual was the bases of society and the Guild's expanded on these beliefs. The Church doctrin that allowed for this is called the Communion of Saints and at the center of this belief is the Eucharistic ritual.

"The communion of saints, when referred to persons, is the spiritual union of the members of The Christian Church, living and the dead, those on earth, in heaven, and, for those who believe in purgatory, those also who are in that state of purification. They are all part of a single "mystical body", with Christ as the head, in which each member contributes to the good of all and shares in the welfare of all.” Wikipedia - Communion of Saints

The Protestant Reformation resulted in the destruction of the ritual that created social unity. In the context of our history it is this event that describes the beginning of the modern era. The Catholic Church survived and did reorganize without Kings and Monarchs. This was simply called the Counter Reformation and included reforms such as actual training for priests in theological traditions and a return to spiritual life through devotions and a personal relation to Christ. It also included the creation of a system of tribunals known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition.

The Inquisition moved at the pace of government and was as widespread as it's influence. There were three distinct movements based on the Supreme orders: Catholic, Spanish, Portuguese and Roman. The Roman Inquisition was considered more bureaucratic and focussed on pre-emptive control in addition to judicial prosecution. It was out of this history that our current forms of government evolved and that specifically separated Church into state, science, and religion.

Although the ritual at the center of Church was supplanted by politics, observation, and the Bible - we find ourselves now at the apex of this modern era where none of these institutions by themselves have meaning. Interesting enough the Eucharist Ritual is about meaning and what it does to use as humans. As a ritual, it's a social activity embraced by a people and a celebrant where activities have specific meaning. In the context of this tradition the change is from bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. This ritual was defined during the previous mentioned history and has its foundations in biblical history and tradition. However, can we now understand it's meaning? Is there a necessity hidden in these acts that could help us out of a society that has become so fragmented that it's disfunctional? The most enticing question for me is - has anything really changed? The only remaining ritual with as much history and tradition is money.