'The Bible's picture of human beings is not as wheelers and dealers in the corporate boardroom, signing contracts with the gods or ultimate reality in order to get ahead; instead, we are joyful children on Christmas morning, receiving unexpectedly lavish gifts from loving parents. Free gift, not contractual obligation, is at the heart of the Bible's picture of reality, just as it at the heart of the Bible's picture of redemption. If this principle is followed through, it yields a world in which the poor, the weak, and the aged are not cast aside because they have nothing to put on the table in the great business deal of life, but they are cared for and honored. God gives freely to those who cannot stand on their own two feet, those who cannot cut a deal with him.'
Christopher Watkin, Biblical Critical Theory, p.64.
