Lunch will be included.
The Economy and Communion:
Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution.
Led by John Denniston
Most people live siloed lives in which our faith is rarely integrated into our educational or work activity. Jesus wants all of us to discern our true purpose in this world, and then go do it. Jesus tells us that the narrow path is the only way to share in His joy. Are you willing to take the adventure to discover how you can merge your faith and daily endeavors in new ways? At our February 4 retreat, in the morning session we will explore how a person might reflect and act on her/his purpose in life. In the afternoon, we will expand the aperture by considering a community’s opportunity to integrate the Gospel’s expression of communion into its economy.
John Denniston is a co-founder and the executive chair of Shared-X, a
regenerative agriculture impact company. Previously, John was a senior Partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, a managing director at the investment bank Salomon Smith Barney, and a partner at the law firm Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison. John gave the commencement addresses at the Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology (2016) and the University of Michigan Economics Department (2020). At DSPT, he is a member of the Board of Trustees, College of Fellows, and the Advisory Board for the Lay Mission Project.In the Fall of 2019, John created and taught a class, “The Impact of Economy,” at the University of Michigan.
The retreat (including lunch) is FREE. If you wish to make a donation, $30 is suggested.
Morning Session: The End of Magical Thinking? You Get to Decide! In this morning session we will explore how a person might reflect and act on her/his purpose in life.
Afternoon Session: Two Spheres and Regeneration. We will consider a community’s opportunity to integrate the Gospel’s message of communion or solidarity into its economy.
We will draw on the writings of Pope Francis, John F Kennedy and Thomas Merton, who have highlighted the high degree of difficulty in making this happen – because of the powerful gravitational pull of our culture of indifference. How can we become a catalyst for healing?
OPTIONAL: Want to prepare for the retreat to get the most from it? Here are three things to read:
Pope Francis, MLK and John Keynes converge on the purpose of a community, and the opportunity to unite the words “economy” and “communion.”
LINK: Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren, John Keynes (1930): (7 short pages). [econ.yale.edu] In this astonishingly prescient paper, Keynes predicts that 100 years later – in other words, in 2030 – the power of compounded economic growth will have translated into a 4x to 8x improvement in the standard of living, which will in turn liberate much of humanity from a lifelong struggle for daily subsistence. Keynes goes further by predicting that this liberation will deprive humanity of its traditional purpose and lead to a crisis of purpose. Keynes says that “…there is no country and no people…who can look forward to the age of leisure and of abundance without a dread…To judge from the behavior and the achievements of the wealthy classes today in any quarter of the world, the outlook is very depressing!” Keynes closes with his most striking prediction – that the newfound wealth could potentially result in a dramatic cultural shift from the exaltation of wealth accumulation to the elevation of our duty to our neighbor as a cultural imperative.
LINK: Martin Luther King’s Final Sermon (1968): Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution (8 pages). [caribbeannationalweekly.com] Four days before he was assassinated in Memphis, MLK delivered his final sermon at the National Cathedral in Washington DC. In it, Dr. King expressed his frustration at the appalling silence and indifference of otherwise good people in the face of so much social injustice. And yet, he knew that, ultimately, “we shall overcome” - because “the arc of the moral universe is long, and it bends toward justice.” King references Matthew 25 when he tells Americans we will all one day stand before Jesus and tell him what we’ve accomplished in our life, and that it won’t be enough to say we “built gargantuan buildings that kiss the skies and…submarines that penetrate the ocean depths.” That’s because Jesus will then ask where we were when He was hungry? Rev. King also referenced the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, in which Lazarus went to Heaven while the rich man went to hell – not because he was rich or because he was hostile to Lazarus; but rather because he passed by Lazarus every day and never really saw him. In Rev. King’s words, “the time is always ripe to do right.”
LINK: Pope Francis Speech (2017) Economy and Communion (4 pages). [vatican.va] Pope Francis observes that, in today’s culture, the words “economy” and “communion” occupy separate and distinct siloes, and are often seen as opposites. In this speech, the Pope praises the Focolare Movement for having innovated an “economy of communion” by seeing entrepreneurs as agents of both profit and good. Business can become an idolatrous form of worship - and vast numbers of people can be discarded – when the culture views profit as the sole purpose of business. The living principle of the Gospel remains active only through action – charitable donations, yes, but more than that through the gift of our own time, effort and creativity.
