Tomas Sedlacek, Economics of Good and Evil
Abridged and edited for readability
It is written, “Man does not live on bread alone.” The Bible, New Testament
Jesus’s “Man does not live on bread alone” is certainly true, just as it is true that people cannot live without bread. We are both spiritual and material beings. In this chapter we will take a look at how Christianity searches for harmony between these two poles. I will try to point out the economic ideas in Christianity, predecessors to the concept of the invisible hand of the market, the question of good and evil, and organizing people in society.
As the most widespread religion in Western civilization, Christianity has had a huge influence on the formation of the modern economy. This faith frequently had the decisive word in normative questions. It would be hard to imagine our contemporary market democracy without it.
Christianity is built on Judaism, takes over numerous elements of Greek thought, and adds its own completely new dimension of salvation. Some economists write that economics is closer to Thomas Aquinas than to Isaac Newton precisely because its rhetoric and argumentation all too often bring to mind theological disputations rather than the arguments among those who study physics. This is in stark contrast to what economics itself proclaims to be.
The Bible and economics are much more closely tied than one would think. Of Jesus’s thirty parables in the New Testament, nineteen (!) are set in an economic or social context: the parable of the lost coin; of talents, where Jesus rebukes a servant who did not “put my money on deposit with the bankers;” of the unjust steward; of the workers in the vineyard; of the two debtors; of the rich fool; and so forth. In the New Testament, economic inquiries are discussed on average every sixteenth verse; in the Gospel of Luke, it is as often as every seventh.
The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’s longest and probably most important speech, starts with the words: “His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’” Poverty (of the soul) is present right at the beginning. Blessed also are those “who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” Without wanting to go into deeper theological exegesis, it is certain that Jesus is turning the maximization theorem inside out. Poverty (of both belly and soul) is considered a high value. Incidentally, gospel, originally meant a tip, a small payment for the conveyance of good news.
And finally one example of how important economic dealings are in the New Testament comes from the last book of the Bible, Revelation. During the end times, during the reign of the Antichrist, the ones not marked with the “name of the beast” will be punished by not being able to buy and sell.
As we have seen, Christianity builds a large amount of its teaching on economic terminology and uses economic and social context. Probably the most important connections between Christianity and economics can be found in the continuation of Jesus’s prayer: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” For in New Testament Greek, debt means sin.
Jesus was speaking of something deeper here. In those days, people whose debt increased so unbearably that they were not able to repay became “debt slaves.” There is rich literature in the Old Testament about the release of debt slaves. The New Testament takes this social institution to a higher and more fundamental level. Someone had to pay a ransom for people who fell into slavery. Forgiveness is the key feature of Christianity, which makes it unique among the major religions. Jesus’s role was to redeem men, purchase us at a price buy us out of debt from the arms of sin, debt. “To give His life as a ransom for many.” “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” In other words, Jesus came to “proclaim the year of the Jubilee” the year of forgiveness of debts.
If this concept seems distant or irrelevant today, let’s just remember the recent redemption of banks and large companies in the crisis years of 2008 and 2009.
Our modern society, paradoxically, cannot function without the institute of this unfair forgiveness of debt. Every here and now, we ourselves practice an unfair forgiveness of debt and unfair treatment. It would be hard to imagine the financial Armageddon that would follow if the government actually did not pay the ransom and redeem banks and some large companies. This, of course, goes against all principles of sound reason and of basic fairness. We also breached many rules of competition on which our capitalism is built. Why did the most indebted banks and companies, which did not compete very well, receive the largest forgiveness? So we see that the principle that Jesus uses is one which is (at least in times of crisis) quite common till this very day. It was not fair, to be sure, but it had to be done in order to redeem not only these particular troubled and highly indebted companies but also others who would fail if these few were not saved.