Jubilee and Social Justice: A Dangerous Quest to Overcome Inequalities

"Impact Investor" Kim Tan challenges the church to ask whether or not the gospel as we interpret it today really embodies the jubilee vision of the Bible. Imagine a group of forty adults living in a community, assisting each other to buy houses, sharing material wealth and releasing the surplus to help others as a practical outworking of the biblical principles of jubilee. Kim Tan was part of this group who defined principles of sacrificial generosity, stewardship, and social holiness.

This book is in two parts. First it walks through the Old Testament on the Jubilee program as given in the covenant to Israel at Mt. Sinai. An idealistic vision was followed by the failure of Israel to practice this teaching. We trace the Jubilee practices in the New Testament through the early Church and later Church history.

The second part focuses on modern expressions of Jubilee as it has caught the imagination of various individuals and groups working out different aspects of the Jubilee in their lives. Modern expressions of the biblical Jubilee include:

1. Communities sharing goods

2. Wealth creation & distribution

3. Cancellation of debt

4. Feeding the widows

5. Set the captives free

6. Stewarding the environment