Grace and Mortgage: The Language of Faith and the Debt of the World

'It is not an accident that we have lost touch with the roots of one of the most important metaphors to have been used about the person and the work of Christ. We have made it possible for ourselves to worship God and Mammon by simply allowing ourselves two separate kinds of language and not letting them interact in any way that would confront our dependence on the economy of credit.' Peter Selby How should we respond to the global economic crisis? Before hurrying to join the frantic search for ways to 'get the economy moving again' it might be worth reflecting on the deeper meaning of the current chaos. No book exposed the delusions and fantasies that underpin the world's economic system better than Peter Selby's Grace and Mortgage. It opened many people's eyes to the corrosive effect of debt, which impoverishes the poorest and leads inevitably to the despoiling of the earth. It gave us a new language for understanding the Gospel. Peter Selby found echoes of the New Testament's witness to the release offered by Christ, and to a 'commonwealth of God' in which there are no 'debtors' or 'creditors' but where the God to whom we owe everything has cancelled our debts. It is a message in stark contradiction to the money-morality which has led to the greed and fear that now threaten to engulf us. Now re-issued with a new Foreword, Grace and Mortgage remains the essential book for anyone seeking to a more creative, sustainable and just future for us all.