Debt AnD lenDing in church history Nathan Hitchcock Were John Chrysostom (c. 347–407) invited to preach in today’s churches, he might rail against the satanic nature of credit cards. “For never does the money-lender enjoy his possessions, nor find pleasure in them,” John announced to his congregation in his Homily 56, “for he is grieved that the interest has not yet come up to the principal. And before this evil offspring is brought forth complete, he compels it also to bring forth, making the interest principal, and forcing it to bring forth its untimely and abortive brood of vipers.” He might even set a Mastercard on fire for effect. Those who bristle at the compound interest of credit cards or the quicksand of payday loans find good company with Christian reformers of the past. The broader church has always viewed debt as a serious peril and lending as a practice requiring strict moral scrutiny. The church’s passionate yet shifting position centers around usury, the charging of interest. Biblical injunctions against usury were applied straightforwardly for 1,000 years. But in the expanding
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doesn’T boTher me A 19th-c. cartoonist depicted market-goers mocking divine judgments against lending.
commercial systems of the High and late Middle Ages, clamping down on usury began to look like whack-amole: as each form was prohibited, a new one arose to take its place. Finally, with the emergence of marketbased economies, Christians softened their critique, even going so far as to create new forms of finance.
The lender’s biTe
Debt, meaning any financial obligation, goes back as far as written records. In ancient civilizations the default means of exchange was some form of debt-andcredit system (not barter, contrary to popular opinion). Interest-free lines of credit existed. Alas, so did predatory loans with unfavorable terms. The Old Testament teems with warnings about any amount of interest. In traditional economies interestbearing loans were punitive; not coincidentally the
Christian History
SchloSS RatiboR—MuSeuM: CariCature of the heavenly punishment of usurers in swabia in 1817 . Wolfgang SaubeR / [cc bY-Sa] WikiMedia
Brood of vipers or avenue for flourishing?
