Bible Study Resources
Welcome to the Cooperatives and Churches Bible Study! Below you’ll find five modules that each explore the biblical roots of the cooperative economy.
The Bible is a crucial tool as you explore the relationship between Christian faith and cooperative economics. But often, we are taught the opposite. As you explore the modules below, you’ll see that when the Bible is read “from below”—from the standpoint of working people—Jesus’ Kingdom of Heaven looks a lot like the cooperative commonwealth.
We hope you’ll use these modules in your education programs, in preparing your sermons, or in your own organizing work.
Module 1:
“Who is benefiting from the economy?”
Introduction
Topic: The economy is not working for all those who have to work for a living. Our current economic system is based on exploitation and extraction of people and the planet.
Biblical Passage:
Biblical Commentary:
Benediction
Articles and videos:
Interested in reading more? Check out the following resources:
Module 2:
“How do economic relationships shape our religious and spiritual lives?”
Introduction
Topic: Economic relationships fundamentally shape our personal and interpersonal lives. Work and labor are not everything, but they certainly form and shape us to our core.
Biblical Passage:
Biblical Commentary:
Additional Resources:
Interested in reading more? Check out the following resources:
Module 3:
“What kinds of relationships does God enter into?”
Topic: God enters into cooperative relationships. God enters into these cooperative relationships to show humans new ways of being in economic, social and political relationship that liberate them from unjust relationships of domination and exploitation.
Biblical Passage:
Biblical Commentary:
Additional Resources:
Interested in reading more? Check out the following resources:
Module 4:
“Can we build an economy that reflects the kinds of relationships God enters into?”
Topic: Worker-owned cooperatives are a basic aspect of a new solidarity economy.
Biblical Passage:
Biblical Commentary:
Additional Resources:
Interested in reading more? Check out the following resources:
Module 5:
“How can our spiritual communities build economic relationships that enact our Christian commitment to justice and solidarity?”
Introduction
Topic: Churches should be investing in and developing co-op networks because they are crucial in constructing a solidarity economy that is a just alternative to the currently unjust and exploitative capitalist one.
Biblical Passage:
Biblical Commentary:
Additional Resources:
Interested in reading more? Check out the following resources:
Resources
We believe that worker cooperatives can be an approach to build power for economic structural change for churches and for the community at large.
Join us in exploring this concept by diving deeper into the resources we have collected below.
