Faith & Prosperity Nexus Blog
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The Secret to the Development of the West
Sometimes we can learn much about ourselves by finding out how others see us. In this op-ed, the Australian Cardinal George Pell discusses how some Chinese sociologists interpret the rise of the West. He writes: “In 2002 a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences described their attempts to account for the pre-eminence of the West. Originally they thought the main reason was more powerful guns. Then it was Western political systems, followed by the Western economy. Their final conclusion, however, was this: ‘In the past 20 years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity… The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the transition to democratic politics. We don’t have any doubt about this.’” Read the rest of the op-ed here The Shanghai University published a study in 2007 concluding that there are about 300 million believers in China. that is up from the official previous estimate of 100 million.
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C.K. Prahalad and the Bottom of the Pyramid
Much too young at age 68, C.K. Prahalad died last week. The New York Times printed his obituary in the Sunday Edition. Professor Prahalad’s “Fortune on the Bottom of the Pyramid” (BOP) became a classic from the start. His suggestion that the poor be regarded as a market opportunity rather than a problem in my view echoes Pope John Paul II’s statement that the poor should be regarded as people with potential to be unleashed rather than them being a “problem” to be solved. (Centesimus Annus 28) As with all great change makers, C.K. Prahalad was not without his critics, some of which with very good arguments, but with his vision and ideas he set in motion a debate that will leave the world richer for it. The World Resource Institute’s Development Through Enterprise interactive portal is a good starting point for anyone interested in engaging the BOP market. It would be interesting to inject a faith based perspective into the ongoing BOP debate to enrich it. How do you think Christian principles like subsidiarity affect this issue? What other faith based principles could apply?