Multipolar Babel? BRICS, Global South Governance, and a Biblical-Theological Critique of New Order Promises
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65655/openchristianpress.140Keywords:
BRICS, Global South, multipolarity, Christian political theology, Babel, global governance, Revelation 13, stigmatized knowledge, technocracy, biblical discernmentAbstract
Background: BRICS and wider Global South governance initiatives increasingly frame multipolarity as an ethical correction to Western-dominated global governance, promising representation, sovereignty, development finance, technological inclusion, and a more equitable international order. Purpose: This article evaluates those promises through a Scripture-first theological-policy framework. Methodology: The study applies qualitative documentary analysis, critical discourse analysis, and biblical-theological interpretation to a purposive corpus of official BRICS, New Development Bank, United Nations, and global financial-governance documents, supported by scholarly literature on global governance, multipolarity, political economy, and Christian theology. A PRISMA-informed corpus-construction log is included for transparency. Findings: The analysis finds that BRICS discourse identifies real inequities in the Bretton Woods and wider multilateral architecture, yet its reform vocabulary also depends on moral claims that can legitimate new forms of institutional centralization, digital coordination, financial dependency, and geopolitical loyalty. Originality/value: The article contributes an eightfold biblical discernment framework for testing world-order promises without collapsing Christian critique into either Western apologetics or uncritical Global South romanticism. Conclusion: Multipolarity may correct some injustices of unipolar dominance, but it is not redemption. Scripture requires Christians to test every global order, Western or non-Western, by the lordship of Christ, truth, human dignity, justice, sovereignty under God, and vigilance against political-economic systems that convert inclusion into managed access and peace into idolatrous security.
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