When the Stranger says: “What is the meaning of this city?
Do you huddle close together because you love each other?”
What will you answer? “We all dwell together
To make money from each other”? or “This is a community”?

This is the challenging question that T.S. Eliot puts to us in his poem The Rock. He responds to his own question with an exhortation:

Oh my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger.
Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions.

The report “God and the Moneylenders” produced by The Contextual Theology Centre is a collection of different writers’ reflections on these issues. The collection has been inspired by recent debates on the ethics of our financial system and the problem of exploitative lending, now want to take practical and effective action. It is structured into three sections:

• Seeing (presenting evidence of the impact of exploitative lending on the poorest)
• Reflecting (bringing this experience into dialogue with the Scriptures)
• Acting (decribing practical initiatives in which local churches can get involved)

You can read God and the Moneylenders by clicking here.