12.15.07

Consulting theologian

Posted in attentioneconomy, timeasvalue at 4:28 am by kevindjones

I asked a former business partner turned theologian if he’d consider being the consulting theologian on the Social Capital event we are holding in San Francisco in mid October next year. My work with this fellow earned both of us multiple millions, and changed our lives. He found my questions around the nature of value interesting but said he wasn’t sure if he had the time to be engaged. Here is my response about the nature of time, to my theologian, author and entrepeneurial friend.
Time as a scarce commodity is a cultural externality that comes to us thanks to markets. If we were just keeping time by the daily office rather than selling it we would not have this problem. Time as money is a problem of a monetary system that can eat anything, starting with the commons. We need a restrictive diet for the market some historically and theologically mediated form of shiboleths/ rules of market engagement/trading agreements and market regulations.

We need to create a space and value that space, which is not subject to purely numerical forms of value. Financial and narrative value need to both be on the balance sheet. I’m not suggesting a spiritual line item. I’m suggesting another system of accounting that incorporates a just Economia. The blessed community, do you buy a futures contract that says it’s going up? what’s the nature of that contract? how can theological and spiritual and economic language create some kind of useful rosetta stone?

2 Comments »

  1. Edward Vielmetti said,

    December 15, 2007 at 4:41 am

    my good friend Brian Kerr noted:

    “To seek the timeless way we first must know the quality without a number. There is a central quality which is the rooted criterion of life and the spirit of man, a town, a building, or a wilderness. This quality is objective and precise, but it cannot be numbered.”

    Brian Kerr channeling Chris Alexander for a new century and an old industry.

    http://vielmetti.typepad.com/vacuum/2007/12/social-media-me.html

    http://joechip.net/brian/2007/12/06/alive-to-the-extent/

  2. Gerry said,

    December 27, 2007 at 3:37 pm

    If your friend is unavailable, I might apply for this consulting theologian job. My credentials may be lacking as well as my formal training, but I don’t charge much either.

    Sounds like quite a challenge. I lot of wisdom in the desire to fill a role like this. Definitely intriguing.

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