In our Brexit Blog series, authors reflect on how, as a Christian nation, we can respond to the challenges and opportunities of leaving the European Union.
Note: Sacristy Press is politically – as well as doctrinally – neutral and does not necessarily share the views expressed here.
Andrew Lightbown – Rector of Winslow
Theresa May, the Prime Minister-in-waiting, has pledged to deliver on Brexit. Leaving the EU is, of course, one person's glorious opportunity and another’s potential socio-economic Armageddon.
Whether Britain gets a good deal or not, and whether we are able to redefine what it means to be a good global neighbour, remains to be seen. However, even having voted Remain, I found myself intrigued by Theresa May's speech in Birmingham earlier this week. She seemed to echo some of the concepts the contributors to Theonomics believe should shape an economy that genuinely seeks to serve the common good: community, solidarity, justice, service and, subsidiarity.
Mrs May also revealed an understanding that economies are relational and, ergo, capable of making people feel either connected or estranged. She suggested that corporates should pay their full share of taxes because of the benefits they receive from our public infrastructure, institutions and, above all, people. Rosie Harper and Alan Wilson raised this issue in Theonomics suggesting that: “a banker is no more a wealth creator than the nurse who saves his life in casualty, and no less. Nobody needs beggar their neighbour in order to achieve sufficiency.”
There may of course be a wide chasm between rhetoric and policy, but maybe our new Prime Minister's rhetoric provides some grounds for hope?
Andrew Lightbown is the editor of Theonomics, a book that asks asks how theology can of inform, shape and penetrate our modern economic life.
What do you think? Have your say by commenting below, or read our other Brexit Blogs.
