Date of Award

5-4-2006

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Sociology

First Advisor

Dr. Stephen Cobb

Abstract

However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.

Deuteronomy 15:4,5

Moses wrote these words nearly 3,500 years ago and they still sound radical today. In a land of plenty there should be no one who is poor among God's people. This is not a promise that God will bless his people to the point where poverty will be eliminated on its own. Rather it is a normative declaration that when God blesses his people there should be no poor among them, provided that we fully follow God's commands.

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