Gift and Charisma in the economy: reflections from the thought of Chiara Lubich

Abstract

This study deals by the search for criteria and economic motivations that contrast with the predominant instrumental logic. Our theoretical trajectory will start from the distinction between formal and substantive economics, as enunciated by Karl Polanyi, going through the critique of utilitarian logic, arriving at the requirement to return to obsolete criteria, such as gift and reciprocity, present in charisms. Thus, we approach Chiara Lubich's charism by examining in these the anthropological elements and the relational logic capable of infusing the economy. As a community reality, the charism generates and strengthens in the relations the dynamics of the gift, and is thus able to reallocate the instrumental logic to those relations that are strictly instrumental. Finally, we present the Economy of Communion as a concrete example of economic achievement that seeks to establish new ways of thinking and acting in the economy.