Religious books and tracks give contradictory messages about accumulating wealth.
Sometimes from the New Testament, we get the impression that when you have spare money, you must employ it in business so as to double it; keeping money locked up in the house is condemned, yet we are also told that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
This seems to discourage the acquisitive spirit.
As a result of these apparent contradictions during the two millennia of Christianity, there have arisen theologians, philosophers, priests and pastors who have had contradictory influences on economic affairs of their countries.
For a long time, the Roman Catholic Church was against the charging of interest on a loan. This attitude was attributed in the teaching of the Greek philosopher Aristotle who taught that money is barren.
The interest charged was viewed as usury, a derogatory term. By forbidding the charging of interest, the church was discouraging trade and investment for these activities flourishing where there is a free flow of credit.
With the rise of Protestantism, some Christians felt no obligation to abide by the Catholic Church’s teaching of interest charging.
In The Economic Journal of the Royal Economic Society dated June 2016, there is an interesting article on a Netherland religious society called “Brethren of the Common Life”, in short BCL.
It was founded by Geert Groote (1340-1384) in the city of Deventer in 1374. Groote was dissatisfied with the moral decline in the Roman Catholic Church. He believed that religion is a personal matter. Therefore, religious people should be able to read the Bible and other religious books in their mother language, anticipating Martin Luther by at least a century. But unlike Luther and Calvin, he preferred to carry out his reforms within the Roman Catholic Church.
The authors of the article say “Our hypothesis is that the BCL in fostering human capital formation contributed to the early development of the Netherlands. The establishment of the BCL in Dutch cities promoted literacy among citizens by institutionalising the educational system, by promoting an intense personal relationship with God through reading the Bible and other religious texts in vernacular, by stimulating a mixed life including both spiritual and economic self-maintenance and production of books as a form of manual labour to make a living in their houses.”
Through the development of human capital, literacy, skills and technology, the Netherlands underwent a measure of industrialisation that motivated it to send settlers to North America, Asia and even South Africa.
Students of the British Industrial Revolution trace influences from both the Netherlands and the arrival of the French refugee Protestants called Huguenots.
Perhaps the most negative approach to human capital formation was achieved by a Spanish priest in South America called Las Cas as who upon seeing too many natives overworked on Spanish forms, he advised the farmers to go to Africa and buy slaves. This began the triangular human traffic that saw millions of Africans forced to leave their homes, go to toil for white people both in North and South America.
The most salutary of religious influence on economic development has been popularised by the German sociologist Max Weber. It is called the Protestant Ethic.
Weber noticed that Protestant sects, especially those linked to the teachings of the Swiss French Reformer John Calvin, were exceptionally successful in business. This he attributed to the Reformers glorification of work as a form of worship and that success in business signified that the person concerned had received God’s approval.
Calvinists were taught to work had, save most of their earnings and live frugal lives. Benjamin Franklin’s Almanac is full of sayings which link God to hard work and success in business. For example, God help those who help themselves; No sweat no sweet; No gain without pain, up sluggard, waste not life, in the grave will be sleeping enough.
Missionaries of various denominations in Africa seem to have stimulated economic development by bringing here crops unknown before. The Portuguese are said to have brought maize, cassava and potatoes here from South America. The tea industry in Malawi owes its origin to Church of Scotland missionaries who settled in the land of Chief Kapeni. Above all, they introduced literacy and skills which are essential for economic development.
Leave a Reply