Overflowing Riches: Generosity, Divine and Human

Abstract

In all three Abrahamic religions the discourse of wealth and poverty is linked to the question of almsgiving. This chapter draws on the writer’s own previous experience of working for a Christian fund-raising organization to explore the theological basis for almsgiving in Christianity, using New Testament scriptural texts, which link the motivation for such almsgiving to the generous nature of God, and the Christian understanding of God’s action in Christ. The chapter draws also on insights from the Jewish writing by Maimonides, Mishnah Torah, and the Muslim text of Al Ghazali, The Mysteries of Almsgiving. It concludes by emphasizing how the image of ‘overflowing’ in Christian almsgiving links together both theological and social/practical dimensions.