Conclusions and After thoughts on the Economic Reconstruction of the Old Testament

Abstract

The economic reconstruction of the Old Testament which I pursued in this book unearthed and stressed, contrary to Pirson’s (2002: 10) and Meeks’ (1989: 3) pessimism, a high contemporary relevance of the Old Testament. As it became clear throughout this book, the Old Testament contributes much to our understanding and solving of constitutional and institutional problems of the modern world, such as societal contracts and cooperative interactions in the capitalist, multicultural society, in the international community and in pluralistic interaction contexts in general. Such problems permeate and dominate the Old Testament from its very outset. A high influence and social competence, especially with regard to economic principles and concepts, can here be attested to the Old Testament. Seemingly, when projected in institutional economic perspective, the Old Testament has a lot to say about problem-solving for the modern society, especially a world that is ever more involved in globalizing interactions.

Since this book [the Old Testament] came into being, it has confronted generation after generation. Each generation must struggle with the Bible in its turn, and come to terms with it.

(Buber 1982: 1)