Abstract
This study deals with the contribution of the Dutch economist Dr. H.M. de Lange to the ecumenical debate on social-ethics. To this end, the first part gives a description of the work of De Lange. Through the individual De Lange the study provides an insight in the worldwide ecumenical movement
... read more
and the ecumenical work in the Netherlands. The contribution of De Lange to ecumenical social ethics is that he consistently elaborated, propagated and practised the ideas that were developed in the ecumenical movement. To that end, De Lange built a huge network of people. To show the importance of De Lange, this network, the discussions he had in this network and the actions he set in motion, are described. This first part is as such an outline of recent history based on the interaction between De Lange and his time. In order not to loose sight of the thinking of De Lange, the second part goes into three elements of them. First, De Lange, student of Jan Tinbergen, is positioned as an economist. De Lange wanted to exercise his profession in a normative way. We can position De Lange in the circles of institutional economists, like Galbraith. Two of De Langes books are analysed. In his dissertation Shaping a Responsible Society (1966) he aims to find out whether the ecumenical concept of the Responsible Society (which in fact is a criterion) can play a role in the building process of an economic order and in the creation of economic policy. The book Beyond Poverty and Affluence (1986, with Goudzwaard) shows that structural flaws in economic theory lead to losses in society. It aims at an economy where the need for care is central and where the choice of production, consumption and income is subservient to that need. The next chapter is a description of De Langes anthropology. De Lange was challenged by the personalism of Banning and by the way Berdjajew spoke hopefully of men. Jewish authors are appreciated by him for their emphasis on the relational aspects of human being, their way of approaching ethics and theology (‘to know God is to know what one has to do’) and their fundamental optimism. He criticizes people who, under the influence of the Catechism of Heidelberg, think negatively of men. De Lange speaks of hope as a duty. The concept of the Responsible Society, developed within the World Council of Churches, is at the heart of De Lange’s thinking. If people are called by God to be responsible, society must offer room to practice responsibility. ‘Where social structures restrain man from answering God, we have the duty to cooperate in the process of liberation’. The concept was criticized and replaced, but close reading shows that not all this criticism does justice to the concept. De Lange opposes all talk of responsibility that rejects government intervention. To him, the central themes of the ecumenical social ethics remained justice, participation and sustainability, concepts with great relevance also for the problems of today.
show less
