In a helpful addition to the growing evangelical literature on poverty, Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert argue persuasively that many well-meaning attempts to help the poor end up hurting them, as well as those trying to help. The book’s title is unfortunate, connoting an overall pessimism toward helping the poor, when the authors are clearly passionate about the call to relieve the poor and oppressed. Corbett and Fikkert begin by laying out the biblical arguments that Christians are obligated to share what they have with those who have not, and to seek the welfare of whatever city they find themselves in, including (and especially) the least of its residents. The book is aimed primarily, however, at those who already understand and accept the biblical preference for the poor, but who have not yet heeded the full scope of biblical wisdom concerning how to help without doing greater damage.
The book’s primary strengths are twofold: a properly holistic definition of poverty, and a comprehensive review of practical strategies for Christians (including churches) to seek the welfare of their city. Following a review of the biblical concern for the poor, Corbett and Fikkert define poverty in terms of the effects of the Fall on what they refer to as four foundational relationships: our relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation. Because all suffer under the effects of sin, all exhibit brokenness in these relationships’the rich no less than the poor. It is immediately apparent, then, that the authors’ definition of poverty alleviation does not describe something the rich provide for the poor. “Poverty alleviation is the ministry of reconciliation: moving people closer to glorifying God by living in right relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation.” It is Christ who is the reconciler; we are never more than ambassadors of the king, bringing good news and working for the peace of his kingdom. There is a danger that this definition covers too much, making poverty alleviation identical with the ministry of the church itself; but the intent seems to be to draw our thoughts about poverty and social justice under the umbrella of the way of the kingdom, in which the rich need the poor as much as the poor need the rich, so that we might all hear the Word and behold the kingdom within the full body of Christ.
The idea that both the rich and the poor need restoration in their lives and that all exhibit brokenness in every facet of their lives is a constant theme of the book. Corbett and Fikkert criticize Christians (including themselves) who have sought to help the poor in ways that merely exacerbate the problem’those who are motivated by feelings of material superiority, which can make the poor feel inferior. They remind us that all humans are intended to image their Creator; but when we provide for others rather than seeking to enable them to provide for themselves (both individually and as communities), we detract from this end. Relief efforts can feed the self-righteousness of the rich and their enlightenment faith in reason and technology, while simultaneously discouraging the poor from solving their own personal and systemic problems.
This reasoning underlies the definition that Corbett and Fikkert provide specifically of material poverty alleviation (and they are clear that acknowledging the spiritual poverty of the rich does not erase the Bible’s clear and frequent admonishments to ease the physical poverty of the poor): “Material poverty alleviation is working to reconcile the four foundational relationships so that people can fulfill their callings of glorifying God by working and supporting themselves and their families with the fruit of that work.” This definition guards against two opposite dangers. First, it recognizes that material is important for spiritual formation: God has created the physical world and given us a mandate to cultivate it as those who bear his image. Poverty is both a cause and an effect of complicated and tragic obstacles to this call. Second, it also recognizes that merely providing material goods to the poor does not restore to them the image of their Creator. Christians seeking to help the poor must seek their ultimate good: to glorify God in the work to which they too are called, for themselves, for their families, and for their communities.
The last half of the book draws together a wealth of experience- and research-based practical advice on helping the poor. It begins by distinguishing three types of aid: relief, rehabilitation, and development. Relief is immediate assistance of an emergency nature, for people or communities who find themselves in severe trouble from which they cannot extricate themselves. Rehabilitation, however, is aid designed to help those who truly can help themselves, and it may withhold material resources in order to encourage the poor to acquire them on their own or with the help of their own communities. Development is a long-term process of ongoing change, most of it originating from within the developing person and community as they further fulfill their call to glorify their Maker by bearing his image. Corbett and Fikkert point out that many of the mistakes Christians make boil down to offering relief where rehabilitation or even development is more appropriate. They advocate for a process that begins with discovering the assets, not the needs, of the person or community requiring help. They then apply this paradigm in three chapters focusing on short-term missions, domestic poverty, and microfinance and other international aid.
What emerges from this book is a distinct sense that helping the poor is more costly than we realize. It requires long-term investment in their lives. Indeed, it requires the rich to realize their need for the poor. It requires the humility to admit that the poor possess vital insights into their own problems, even when they do not appear to be seeking solutions; it requires an approach that enables them to apply these solutions themselves, rather than reinforcing their belief that they have none to offer. And it accurately identifies the source of poverty in the sinfulness of human hearts, rich and poor alike, which can be alleviated by nothing less than the atoning work and coming kingdom of Jesus Christ. We are called to love the poor, and we are called to repent and believe. These are not two calls but one.
For further reading filling in many of the details of how poverty and its alleviation work, I recommend the recent book Poor Economics by MIT economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. Although they do not write from a Christian perspective, they offer useful insights, backed largely by their own field research among the poor over the last decade, on how and in what circumstances aid can be helpful or harmful. Intriguingly, many of their results portray the poor in a similar light to When Helping Hurts: they possess diverse and powerful gifts, as well as a dignity to which we can do great violence if we are too quick to rush in with our efforts to help.
