I just read an excellent short biography of John Calvin written by top-notch Evangelical historical theologian Alister McGrath. As a Religion major at top-notch Davidson College (historically Calvinist), I learned all about the Reformed Theological Tradition, its obvious superiority to everything except for Roman Catholicism for some reason ;-) and basically learned to "think like a Calvinist" (reading Calvin's Institutes and Karl Barth does that to a man! :-)
So, when I encountered something new about John Calvin (I am a 'know-it-all book worm' you know! :-) I thought, 'my gosh, the Copernican Revolution' of the 21st century in Human Thought can now happen due to my upcoming Wednesday "Calvin-usury" blog!
Well, no I am not that full of bombast to make such a claim (only when watching F.S.U. football do I become such a proud peacock! ;-).
No, stated humbly, what I learned from Alister McGrath's treatment of Calvin's biography was that John Calvin, in spite of birthing the proverbial 'Protestant Work Ethic' that fueled Geneva, Switzerland and then Calvinist Scotland and finally Calvinist New England and the birthing of the U.S.A., also, sadly enough, birthed usury as an acceptable practice.
No, it was not Martin Luther in Germany. Luther was much too concerned with conversion to Jesus Christ within the semi-feudal rural German lands to rid himself of the Church's antipathy towards charging interest. No, on the Protestant side, apparently we can attribute John Calvin to birthing the sin of usury as acceptable practice.
So, there you have it. Usury, the charging of interest was jettisoned by Calvin.
So, now that we have been living in the supposedly 'prosperous' West that has been built on the sin of usury (that is charging interest on loans to fellow Christians), what have been the 'net results?' Well, when capital was hoarded in Europe it eventually led to revolt. Karl Marx first formulated an alternative to usury purely on secular grounds, and nation state after nation state fell to communism.
Now, in other parts of the world, the battles have been fought, not on religious grounds as secular humanistic liberals want us to believe. No, it has been the capitalistic West in battle first against communism, whether it was the Korean War, the Cold War or the Vietnam War OR the capitalistic West battling the new foe of the day ISLAM with its rich oil reserves that essentially make capital and money supply meaningless in the twenty first century's economy. Who needs capital when a Middle Eastern country can charge its own citizens 20 cents per gallon of gasoline and then we in America pay several dollars for the same gasoline.
No, we in the West who have lived off of the sin of usury (or have been victimized by it) are in steep decline. Islam does not charge interest. Muslims therefore are less likely to impoverish each other. But, we here in the West try to sell each other's children off. Student loans, mortgages, etc. All of this usury going on with fewer and fewer capitalists at the 'top' of the 'pyramid' and the rest of the West sweating it out, never able to amass anything but more debt.
But, contra the West and contra Islam and contra communism is the transnational community known as Christianity. No, I am not speaking of the institutional Church (for the most part), but instead I am talking about the living, breathing Body of Jesus Christ united by the Eucharistic bread and wine and pledged to support each other. Whether it is me receiving a free plane ticket to attend a Catholic renewal conference OR me similarly sending some of my hard-earned cash to help out a Franciscan ministry that helps problem teenagers right here in Florida, the Body of Jesus Christ, at its best, resists, rather than embraces such greed and corruption as the sin of usury promotes.
So, no, Marxism is definitely NOT the answer. Similarly, capitalism is not the answer especially since this goes against Christian teaching (sorry John Calvin, you birthed greed, not a holy people!), but instead, the TRUE Body of Jesus Christ must RISE UP and throw off the shackles of world slavery that ironically enough all started in Switzerland, the place where Nazis stored their stolen Jewish money during the holocaust. I guess the Swiss are not so 'neutral' after all. Forsake Christ and embrace usury is what eventually happened to Calvin's Geneva. This was not the fault of Calvin, but sadly, the 'net result' was the birthing of a slavery-producing world financial system that has crippled Africa, enslaved its own children and now wants to dismantle the United States of America. Several trillion dollars of debt we apparently are in as a Federal Government.
All thanks to a little man from Geneva . . .
Blessings in Jesus,
Rob J. King, Swiss Chocolate eater and a Free Man in Christ Jesus
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Rob
Ending Usury is something with which I am completely in agreement. The problem with Usury is that lets call it false money is generated and people then invest there money in financial instruments as opposed to investing the money in developing business, supporting the entrepreneurs develop business which develops employment at a micro level much more efficiently than any corporation can. People would rather not invest in business if they can get better returns from the bank.
Banks used to be a repository of money that invested in specific projects and environments to offer entrepreneurs access to capital and saver access to the return on those businesses. Thus agricultural banks loaned savings to farmers to develop farms in return for a percentage of the profit based on % ownership. Banks do still invest in stock markets, but the investment is not there to earn money from dividends normally, but to trade on volatility in the market with increasingly complex derivative products (that seem to fuel the volatility) that are net zero sum gain on the trade (one trader bets against another and the winner takes the money). The only addition into the sum is the actual real money dividends that corporations pay out from actual production. So some blue collar guy shovelling coal somewhere adds the value that is traded in large volumes elsewhere. You even have banks that invest in other banks in this closed loop (emperors clothes).
What I have been unable to do is try to understand how to change the economic model so that there is no interest and thus no inflation, so much of how the worlds economics works is dependent on inflation and interest. I'd be intrigued to have an economist discuss this issue.
In what way did Calvin allow or create an interest charging economy? I haven't access to the book you referred and would be interested in a brief summary of his specific actions in this process of allowing usury.
As an aside on the whole I agree with Calvin's assertions. I agree with his total depravity of man, salvation entirely through grace and Gods action, the sovereignty of God etc, what I struggle with is the limited atonement. Atonement only for those called from "those He predestined He called, those He calls He transforms" etc (my summation of teh passage). Not sure that the **all** in Jn 3:16 is referring to "all he called" rather than all humankind.
Nick,
Regarding Calvinist Theology, to the extent that I am a "Barthian" (theology of Karl Barth, Swiss Reformed Theologian who opposed Hitler's Germany), yes I also agree with Calvinist views of human nature as being fallen(although still allow for some innate human goodness), Calvin's Christo-centrism, and Evangelical Calvinism in general that seeks conversion to Jesus Christ.
Concerning the bit about Calvin on usury, this came from a brief biographical essay in the book The Second One Thousand Years, editted by Catholic priest Richard John Neuhaus. A preview of the book is available on-line, so here it goes :-) http://books.google.com/books?id=A9vLawgq32oC&dq=books+edited+by+Richard+John+Neuhaus&pg=PR3&ots=5P5NF3goP2&sig=qb0rxIV59eKXON7Phpp8tXIMh0A&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fhl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26rlz%3D1T4ADBF_enUS231US232%26q%3Dbooks%2Bedited%2Bby%2BRi
In Calvin's essay (by Alister McGrath, an EXCELLENT historical theologian), usury is just mentioned in passing, BUT I took that passing reference to its logical conclusion and how it was from the Calvinist side of the Reformation (not the Lutheran side) that the Catholic prohibitions against usury were first dropped (Luther apparently maintained this animosity towards usury). The later history and how it led to full-blown capitalism I am not sure about.
Regarding our present situation, I am not sure about South Africa, but for the United States, we can return to the 19th century rural farming and urban shopkeeper model in which exchange of goods & services was just important as "actual cash." I have seen this work best through local churches to include my 1998 tax returns being done for free by the owner of the Monroe, NC H & R Block tax preparers because Virginia Braswell was the church's lay leader and said "don't worry about any payment." My Dad and my uncle would similarly "swap labor" either by my father doing carpentry work at my uncle's house OR my uncle painting our automobile for us because my uncle used to paint autos for Ford motor company. Either way, it saved the other brother money.
In my own present context in St. Petersburg, FL, I am less sure. What I generally experience is say at the local tavern, they had a "beerfest" in which $20 cover charge entitled you to free beer (GOOD beer like Guiness) and free sausage, sauerkraut, and potato salad for all afternoon a couple of Saturdays ago. The owner was able to make some money and I had about $80 worth of food and beer for only $20! (I literally ATE two and half plates of food, drank all afternoon and was able to watch about 5 football games at once . . .) Nick, you would have been in heaven!
Other than such local economic arrangements of labor-swapping and local taverns, I am fairly scared about U.S.A.'s future economic prospects.
Blessings in Jesus,
Rob
Rob
In South Africa we have a two tier economy. The formal economy which is dominated by big business, big banks and very first world, complex banking derivatives, Usury etc. The boundary zone between the two economies is where the unemployed meet the first world and interest charges, loan sharks enslave (literally) the people. Crime is the other boundary as the poor are enticed into the gaudy world of rich, must have things. Petty survival crimes leads to worse and highly organized crime use and enslave those at the bottom of the wrung into a world of evil and violence. Crime as the ultimate "free market" Greed and fear drive the stock markets and the criminal. People are enslaved by greed and pride to live beyond there means caught in the credit trap. Previously disadvantaged people emerging from the shadow of apartheid into the light to be swallowed by another shadow of debt. A law was passed recently - the credit control act aimed at limiting borrowing to stop people using cards to payoff cards. Our reserve bank governor is rightly trying to stop inflation however when 35% of the country is unemployed (25% officially but that is people who are actively seeking work) and economic growth starts to employ then growth will drive inflation. SO first world policies are strangling the third world part of our economy. How to balance the equation?
Then there is the second tier entirely consists of bata and swapping of labour and goods. People in this tire are poor and subsistence living, but usury is non existence. People in this group form "stockvels" literally stick skins groups collectively save up to purchase items required communally as that is the only way they can survive. The community is inter-dependant on one another. Perhaps it seems romantic, but survival is the key to existence, and it is often squalid and difficult. The contrast between rich and poor is however stark.
An economic policy which gives these people hope, creates opportunity for work, development entrepreneurship, wealth development, with out the ludicrous accumulation of capital in the ultra rich, who abuse and squander resource and blame the poor for having to many babies. The balance is taught in the bible. Your house was only as big as your family, jubilee laws restoring ownership and killing debt, responsibility tolove your neibour as your self. Collective responsibility, "am I my brothers keeper" the answer was clearly yes in God's eyes. Love your neibour as your self. Are we that self loathing these days?
I will seek out more information on Calvin. His permisivness leads to the current ecconomic system? Its quite a big jump, but I can see your thinking.
Post a Comment