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Denouncing The Theology Of The Rich

Denouncing The Theology Of The Rich

Last updated on: July 16, 2026 at 1:51 am by Henry Karlson

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Denouncing The Theology Of The Rich 2026-07-16T01:51:28-05:00 Henry Karlson

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Dorothee Soelle warns us against following a theology of the rich. Photo: Fotoburo de Boer: Dorothee Soelle / Wikimedia Commons

Dorothee Soelle saw how the government, far from fulfilling its purpose to promote the common good and defend human dignity, often abuses the poor, and in doing so, not only undermines their dignity, but hinders them from making any positive development in their lives. Governmental attacks on the poor, often claimed to force the poor to help themselves, make it impossible for them to get out of poverty. It costs time and money that the poor not not have, which is why the government needs to step in and help them out. Sadly, far too many people do not want the government to “waste” money on the poor because they deem the poor to be worthless. It’s amazing how many who say this are Christians; did they ever pay attention to what Christ taught? Too many in society would rather hide the poor (and other outcasts) from the public, either by putting them in prisons or poorly made and run homeless shelters, than to actually help them; with them hidden from view, society can act like the problems related to poverty have been fixed (allowing them to claim that those who are impoverished only have themselves to blame):

What the government builds for the poor are urgently needed prisons and, most recently, homeless shelters to make this third world invisible in the midst of the splendid first. These shelters do not even represent an attempt at solving the problems. One part of the population is supposed to be isolated, uneducated, unemployable, sick, and torn between despair and rage. Youths who grow up here are described as devoid of any morality and without any feeling of self-esteem. [1]

Soelle saw this happening in the 1990s; the situation has become much worse, and much more dire, for the poor since then. More and more laws have been made which hurt the poor, such as making it illegal to rest in public spaces. The homeless end up being fined for living, and because they cannot afford the fines, they are imprisoned. Many are concerned that this is merely the first step in reestablishing debtors prisons, but, in a way which is actually worse in the past, because those in prison will be turned into slave labor, and, because they are now hidden from view, society will be left unaware what is happening to them, leaving them no one to speak up for them when they are abused.

Sadly, every time someone speak out against what is happening to the poor, they are told that the poor are lazy and society is justified in letting them perish. Not only is such an ideology cruel, it justifies itself based upon lies; it ignores the structures of society and their role in creating and reinforcing poverty. Those structures, which clearly are structures of sin, are growing stronger in the modern age; the poor find themselves under assault as the rich want to take all they can from anyone poorer than they are, so that they can become even more richer and more powerful. The rich are looting the system, leaving more people impoverished. It is shameful that any Christian would accept and give in to this system. Those who do are far from following Christ, because ignore or outright reject his teachings which can be seen represented by the preferential option for the poor. Sadly, they not only ignore what Christ taught, they create justifications for the system, leading to what can only be described as a “theology of the rich” as Soelle indicated: “If we disregard the poor and keep ourselves apart from them, then we pursue – intentionally or unintentionally – a theology of the rich.” [2]

James, in the first century, was horrified when he saw Christians showing a preference to the rich and powerful, glorying them because of their wealth, while ignoring or disregarding the poor in their midst. He said that their actions were the opposite of what Christ expected from them: the poor should be lifted up, while the rich should be humbled:

Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like the flower of the grass he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits (Jas. 1:9-11 RSV).

James exhorted us to love our neighbor, no matter their social status. He warned us that if we don’t, we risked turning against Christ, embracing sin, and finding ourselves on the path which leads to perdition:

If you really fulfil the royal law, according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it (Jas. 2:8-10 RSV).

Scripture consistently has represented God as being a God of the poor and the oppressed. It gave no room for a “theology of the rich”: “It is a fact: in almost every scene of the Old Testament drama of salvation, the poor are defended against the rich, the weak against the strong. Yahweh is the God of the oppressed whose revelation is identical with their liberation from bondage.” [3] When Jesus read the Isaiah scroll and said that it was being fulfilled in his person, he was proclaiming the liberation of the poor:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (Lk. 4:18-19 RSV).

Jesus fulfilled these words in the incarnation, where he not only showed God’s solidarity with the poor, he made placed himself with, the poor, with the homeless, pointing out that he he had no place to lay his head; if he were alive and in the United States today, he would find himself, like other homeless, being fined and imprisoned just for laying down when he needed rest. And, because Christ is found in the poor, in the homeless, it is actually happening, with Christians often being the one having him arrested. Those who love Christ, those seeing what is happening to him, must fight against and resist a theology of the rich, a theology of exploitation. They should denounce it for the heresy it promotes. Not only should they make their views known by their words, they should also act, doing what they can to protect the poor and their dignity. They must reject any attempt to denigrate the poor by making it harder for them to even survive. They must seek to lay to waste the structures of sin, replacing with them a more just, and benevolent system, a system which should seek the common good and not the good of a select few.

[1] Dorothee Soelle, On Earth as in Heaven: A Liberation Spirituality of Sharing. Trans. Marc Batko (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1993), 5.

[2] Dorothee Soelle, On Earth as in Heaven: A Liberation Spirituality of Sharing, 7.

[3] James H. Cone, God Of The Oppressed (New York: Seabury Press 1975), 70.

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